Gerard Bouttats

Gerard Bouttats was born in Antwerp around 1630 as the son of the prominent engraver and print publisher Frederik Bouttats the Elder and Maria de Weerdt. He was a half-brother of Frederik the Younger and brother of Gaspar, Jacob and possibly Philibert the Elder who all became printmakers. There is no record of Jacob being registered as a pupil or master at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. This confirms that the first trained and then worked in his father's workshop. He also made engravings after the designs of the local artist Johann Toussyn. He is recorded next in Vienna where he was employed as an engraver for the local university. He reportedly engraved portraits of doctors of the university, including one of Adam Munds. He was possibly the father of J. Bouttats, an artist who worked in Bohemia around 1700. The place and time of his death are not recorded but it was likely in Vienna around 1668 as no information regarding Bouttats is recorded after that date. ==Work==

Bouttats worked as an engraver who produced mainly portraits, and to a lesser extent, allegories, some landscape and battle scenes, calendars and devotional works. He worked with Franciscus van der Steen, Nikolaus van Hoy and Jan van Ossenbeeck on a publishing project on the occasion of the wedding of Emperor Leopold I and Margaret Theresa of Spain. It describes the festive celebrations, including a horse ballet, that were performed in January 1667. Th event was directed by Alessandro Carducci, with floats designed by Carlo Pasetti and a text written by Francesco Sbarra. The book was published in 1667 in Vienna under the title Sieg-Streit Deß Lufft vnd Wassers ('Fight between air and water'). Bouttats designed and engraved some of the prints, including those depicting in detail the floats and a grotto, that were especially created by Carlo Pasetti for the festival. Bouttats collaborated on the publication Historia di Leopoldo Cesare written by Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato and published in Vienna by the Flemish publisher from Antwerp Johann Baptist Hacque. The first and second volumes of the book were published in 1670 and a third one in 1674. The first volume described the political and military successes of Emperor Leopold I between 1656 and 1670. It was mainly illustrated with prints made by Flemish and Dutch printmakers after designs by other Netherlandish artists as well as artists from Germany and Italy. The illustrations mainly depict portraits of European monarchs and important aristocrats, castle scenes, battle scenes, maps and ceremonies. Apart from Bouttats, the Dutch and Flemish artists contributing were Frans Geffels, Jan de Herdt, Franciscus van der Steen, Cornelis Meyssens, Adriaen van Bloemen, Sebastian van Dryweghen and Jacob Toorenvliet. German artists Moritz Lang, Johann Martin Lerch and Johann Holst and Italians Il Bianchi, Marco Boschini and Leonardus Hen.t Venetiis also contributed. Bouttats engraved a number of the portraits that were included in this work. He also created a series of prints representing the martyrdom of Catholic missionaries in the colonies. This includes the print showing the martyrdom of father Sebastian Vieira in Japan. ==References==