Jean-Baptiste Barbé

Jean-Baptiste Barbé, a Flemish engraver, was born at Antwerp in 1578. In 1595 he entered the studio of Philippe Galle, and in 1610 he was received as a master into the Guild of St. Luke. He soon afterwards went to Italy to improve himself in drawing, which may account for his being more correct in his design than many of his countrymen. On his return to Antwerp he engraved several small and middle-sized plates, in a very neat manner, and in a style very similar to that of Wiericx. He died at Antwerp in 1649. Van Dyck painted a portrait of this artist, which is engraved by Bolswert.

Subjects from his own designs

• The Annunciation; inscribed Spiritus Sanctus.
• The Nativity; inscribed Peperit Filium.
• The Virgin Mary and St. Joseph arriving at Bethlehem; inscribed Et reclinavit eum, &c.
• The Virgin suckling the Infant Jesus in a Garland of Flowers; inscribed Beatus venter, &c.
• Christ on the Mount of Olives; In diebus, &c.
• Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus; Et aperti sunt, &c.
• The Crucifixion; Prohe flli, &c.
• St. Ignatius Loyola kneeling before an Altar.
• Four Emblematical Subjects of the Christian Virtues.

After various masters

• The Repose in Egypt; St. Joseph presenting an Apple to the Infant; after G. B. Paggi.
• The Holy Family, with the Infant Jesus embracing St Joseph; after Rubens.
• Twenty-four plates of the Life and Miracles of Father Gabriel Maria, founder of the Annunciades; with his Portrait; after A. van Diepenbeeck.
• The Virgin seated on a Throne, holding the Infant, with a Bird; after Frans Franck, the elder.

In Meyer's 'Kunstler-Lexikon' there is a list of 148 of his engravings.

References

This article incorporates text from the article "BARBE, Jan Baptista" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.