Abraham van Diepenbeeck

Abraham van Diepenbeeck (9 May 1596 (baptised) – between May and September 1675) was a Dutch painter, draftsman, glass painter, print maker and tapestry designer who worked most of his active career in Antwerp. He designed glass windows for various churches and monasteries in Antwerp for which he made many design drawings and oil sketches. He engraved and designed many prints which were published by prominent Antwerp printers such as van Meurs, the Plantin Press and Martinus van den Enden the Elder. He had a close relationship with the workshop of the leading Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens and collaborated on various projects under the direction of Rubens. In the 1630s van Diepenbeeck started to create monumental paintings.

He was registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a glass painter ('gelaesschryver') in the guild year 1622–23. It is believed that in the years 1626-1627 he assisted, along with the workshop of Rubens, with the cartoons for the tapestry series of The Adoration of the Eucharist. In 1627 he designed on the instruction of Rubens drawing for the frontispiece of the book Vitae patrum. De vita et verbis seniorum, sive, Historiae eremiticae libri X. Auctoribus suis et nitori pristino nestituti, ac notationibus illustrati, opera et studio Heriberti Ros-weydi Vltraiectini, e soc. Jesu theologi published in 1628 by the Plantin Press in Antwerp. Around 1632 Rubens requested van Diepenbeeck to travel to France to make drawings after frescoes by Francesco Primaticcio (1504–157) and Nicolò dell'Abate (ca. 1509–1571) in Paris and Fontainebleau. Van Diepenbeeck had his whole career great difficulties with the Guild and many of his colleagues. He was elected, against his own wishes, to serve as the dean of the guild during the guild year 1642–1643. He refused to present the annual accounts of the guild for that year which were then prepared by Guillam Leestens in his stead.

In 1648 the Antwerp painter Gonzales Coques undertook to supply a series of monumental paintings on the life of Psyche for the Huis Honselaarsdijk, a palace of the Stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (1584–1647). The paintings in the series were to be made after designs by van Diepenbeeck and were executed by other painters from Antwerp. As in 1652 Van Diepenbeeck had still not been paid the financial compensation for his work he filed a lawsuit against Coques. As at the beginning of the 19th century a large portion of the palace was destroyed, the paintings do not survive.

In the last half of his life, the artist busied himself nearly exclusively with designs for books and tapestries.

Among his prints are 49 of the 58 designs engraved by Cornelis Bloemaert and others for Michel de Marolles' Tableaux du Temple des Muses to illustrate de Marolles' adaptations of classical fables. Van Diepenbeeck designed all plates other than plates nos. 9, 10, 19, 32, 49, 47, 50, 52 and 53 which were designed by Pierre Brebiette.