Nicolaus van Aelst

Who is Nicolaus van Aelst?

Nicolaus van Aelst was a Flemish engraver and perhaps painter.

Van Aelst was born in Brussels. At an early age he established himself at Rome, where from 1550 to 1612 he carried on a considerable commerce in prints, and where he died. The names of the painter, and the engraver of the plates, executed for his collection, were frequently omitted, and his own inserted, with the word formis, to denote that he was the publisher. It is, however, sufficiently proved, that he sometimes used the graver, as we have several plates in which the word fecit, or sculpsit, is added to his name. Heineken notices a set of twelve plates of birds engraved by this artist.