The collections
The Museum Plantin-Moretus conserves a multiple collections. Old printed books and manuscripts, printing presses and tools, paintings, prints and drawings, furniture and paintings and several archives.
Allegory for Abraham Ortelius
This superb little drawing on parchment was done by Joris Hoefnagel in 1593 to commemorate his friendship with the cartographer and geographer Abraham Ortelius, as the inscriptions below inform us.
©Museum Plantin-Moretus
Owl and snakes
Joris Hoefnagel (Antwerp, 1542 – Vienna, 1600) served successively as court painter to Duke Albert V in Munich and to Emperor Rudolf II in Prague.
This drawing is an allegorical representation of the union of the arts and the sciences. The owl symbolizes Athena, goddess of wisdom, and the staff she holds - a paintbrush entwined with two snakes symbolizes Hermes, god of the Fine Arts.
The insects and the painter’s tools are rendered with exceptional precision. Hoefnagel employed cast shadows, making the insects and objects appear to rest on the parchment itself. Such a minute little gem was a sought-after object for the decoration of bourgeois or princely interiors and the art cabinets of distinguished collectors. They were mounted on wood, framed, and hung on the wall.
©Museum Plantin-Moretus
iJoris Hoefnagel, Allegorie voor Abraham Ortelius, PK.OT.00535, Collectie Stad Antwerpen, Museum Plantin-Moretus
