Portrait of Joannes Neyen, General of the Order of Franciscan Friars, Ambassador in Trier

Jan Muller was one of the most sought-after Mannerist printmakers at the end of the sixteenth century. The son of an Amsterdam printer, printmaker, and publisher, he developed a style modeled on that of Hendrick Goltzius, the premier draftsman and printmaker in the northern Netherlands. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, he began to engrave portraits. A few were of artists and musicians, but most were of important political figures, reproducing painted portraits by various artists. Among the largest and most complex are the portraits of Prince Maurits (63.624.3), Albert, Archduke of Austria (22.42.1), Isabella Clara Eugenia (51.501.7561), and the present work, the Portrait of Jonannes Neyen, after a painting by Michiel van Mierevelt. In these Muller showed off his technical brilliance, replicating the sheen of the sitters’ armor or the luxurious fabrics of their clothing. The resulting prints won him great respect and a substantial income.


In addition to his religious role as the leader of the Franciscans, one of the four great mendicant orders in the Catholic church, Neyen (1571-1628) was a diplomat in the service of Archduke Albert of Austria, the Hapsburg ruler of the Southern Netherlands. He played a significant role in establishing a cease fire in the war between the Dutch Republic and the Hapsburgs, rulers of Spain and the Southern Netherlands. It resulted in the Twelve Year Truce, signed in 1609, the year after this portrait was published.