[Johan]
(b Brussels, 1550; d Venice, 1610). Flemish copperplate engraver. One of a family of engravers, he worked in several German cities, notably Munich, and in Italy. His works include a number of devotional music publications (1584–90; some ed. in Organum, 1st ser., xix–xx, Leipzig, 1930). These engravings, sometimes known as ‘picture-motets’, show angels or biblical figures singing and playing from partbooks and may have been published in support of the Counter-Reformation. Their popularity is demonstrated by the fact that the earliest example, C. Verdonck’s Ave gratia plena (Antwerp, 1584), was reprinted at Rome in 1586 and at Antwerp in 1587. The composers, artists and engravers were all Flemish and these fine engravings, with the music complete and legible, bear witness to the thriving artistic life in Antwerp at the end of the 16th century. Although their influence on Verovio is largely conjectural, they are important in their own right as particularly beautiful and unusual examples of early music engraving. One of the finest, Pevernage’s ...