Schelte Adams Bolswert

Schelte Adamsz. Bolswert was among the second generation of engravers working for the painter Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp. Bolswert built upon Lucas Vorsterman’s engraving strategies. He increased the number of crossed lines that made up dark tonal areas while also applying greater discipline and regularity to the length and width of lines, creating ever more dramatic coloristic effects. Notice how no surface is left untouched. Each face is characterized not by the net of lozenges and dots common to Goltzius and Carracci, but by closely spaced parallel lines punctuated with flicks or dots.

Rubens designed this subject for a suite of tapestries on the Triumph of the Eucharist, commissioned by the Infanta Isabella, Governess of the Spanish Netherlands, for the intended location of the Convent of Poor Clares at Descalzas Reales, Madrid. Depicted with the patroness St. Clare are the church fathers who traditionally announced or defended the Eucharist.