Israhel van Meckenem

Israhel van Meckenem’s origins are obscure; the surname van Meckenem has been interpreted as “von Meckeneheim”, but whether the family originated in Meckenheim near Bonn cannot be proven. It is possible that Israhel received his initial training as a goldsmith and engraver from the Master of the Berlin Passion, a goldsmith and engraver active in the Rhine-Meuse region, whose engravings Israhel copied.
His obviously early specialisation in copper engraving led him on his obligatory travels to the Upper Rhine to the workshop of Master E. S., the most important copper engraver of the time. He not only gave Israhel the technical tools, but also a thematic range of copper engraving, which Israhel took up: Christian devotional pictures, engravings with profane materials, playing cards and alphabets up to ornaments, organised in a publishing house and distribution, which he similarly got to know in the workshop of Master E. S., also came from him.
After his apprenticeship in southern Germany, Israhel returns to Westphalia, apparently first to Kleve, and in 1580 he is mentioned for the first time as the owner of a house in Bocholt. He is obviously well-to-do and must have quickly built up a flourishing workshop in Bocholt, for in 1582 he is explicitly listed as a master craftsman who also receives commissions from the town as a goldsmith. A large part of his most comprehensive work of the 15th century, with about 550 copper engravings, is made up of copies after the master E. S., but also after Albrecht Dürer and Martin Schongauer, in addition to his own inventions.