Michel Le Blon and England, 1632–1649
1998; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 22; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/03096564.1998.11784088
ISSN1759-7854
Autores Tópico(s)Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
ResumoAlthough the career of the engraver, artist, art broker, diplomat, and staple of news Michel Le Blon has been sporadically explored with respect to the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy, little is known about his activities in England as Swedish Agent at the court of Charles I. Inasmuch as Van Dyck painted his portrait and as Le Blon both had a hand in publishing the Dutch translation of John Donne's Devotions on Emergent Occasions and was involved in the circumstances behind the 1640 edition of Donne's sermons, it is useful to determine the exact chronology of his stay in England and his activities while there. Archival materials in Stockholm show that after the Swedish chancellor Axel Oxenstierna appointed him in 1632, he spent much less time in England than bio-bibliographical sketches suggest. His first stay in London fell between mid-March and early July, 1634; his second, from early February to the end of May, 1635; his third, from the end of March to around the beginning of October, 1638; his last, from November, 1639, to mid-August, 1641. Among other matters such as the use of Dutch in the Swedish chancellery, this information enables one to date Van Dyck's portrait of Le Blon in April or May, 1635; his acquisition of John Donne's Devotions on Emergent Occasions (1624, but published in Dutch translation in 1655) in 1640; and Vondel's epigram ‘Op [Le Blon] door den Ridder Van Dijck geschilderd’ in 1635–1638.
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