Volcxken DiericxName also spelled as: Volcxken Diercx, Volcxken Diericx, Volcxken Dierickx (c. 1525 – 1600) was a Flemish print maker and publisher. She and her husband

Hieronymus Cock Hieronymus Cock, or Hieronymus Wellens de Cock (1518 – 3 October 1570) was a Flemish painter and etcher as well as a publisher and distributor of prints.

founded an important publishing house in Antwerp, which she continued to operate after the death of her husband.Volcxken Diericx
on

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

site

Biography

She was probably from

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

like her husband

Hieronymus Cock Hieronymus Cock, or Hieronymus Wellens de Cock (1518 – 3 October 1570) was a Flemish painter and etcher as well as a publisher and distributor of prints.

.Hieronymus Cock
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

Together they founded the publishing house ''Aux Quatre Vents'' (The Four Winds), for which they received a patent on 11 January 1548. Their shop was located near the ''New Exchange'', on the corner of Lange Nieuwstraat and Katelijnevest. They later moved near to the tapestry exchange called '' Tapissierspand''. On a print by Johannes van Deutecum from 1560, the couple is portrayed in their shop (the rest of the building and street is from an architectural fantasy by Hans Vredeman de Vries). The print has two inscriptions, "IIII vens" (i.e. Quatre Vents) and a pun based on the meanings in Dutch of their respective names, i.e. 'Cock' means 'a cook' and 'Volckx' means 'the people': "''Laet de Cock coken om tvolckx wille''" which literally translates as 'let Cock cook what his Volcxken wants' (a reference to his wife's important role) but also refers to the fact that their publishing house published what the market (the people) wanted.Piet Offermans, ''Hieronymus Cock. De renaissance in prent. Joris van Grieken, Ger Luijtenen Jan van der Stock (ed.), Tentoonstellingscatalogus, 2013, Mercatorfonds, Brussel, Illuminare – Studiecentrum voor Middeleeuwse Kunst (KU Leuven)''
/ref> File:Hieronymus-Cock-Aux-Quatre-Vents.jpg, ''Aux Quatre Vents'' in a 1560 print File:Cockvolc.png, Detail ''Aux Quatre Vents'' became a prestigious publishing house that published about 2,000 prints during its half century of existence. Cock and Diericx specialized in high quality etchings and engravings, made by the best European specialists, offered a wide variety in subject selection, and exported to all corners of the world. From 1551 until Cock's death, the couple employed the engravers

Pieter Breugel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; – 9 September 1569) was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-cal ...

Lucas Lucas or LUCAS may refer to: People * Lucas (surname) * Lucas (given name) Arts and entertainment * Luca Family Singers, or the Lucas, a 19th-century African-American singing group * Lucas, a 1960s Swedish pop group formed by Janne Lucas Perss ...

and Joannes van Deutecum,

Giorgio Ghisi Giorgio Ghisi (1520 — 15 December 1582) was an Italian engraver from Mantua who also worked in Antwerp and in France. He made both prints and damascened metalwork, although only two surviving examples of the latter are known. He worked in ...

Cornelis Cort Cornelis Cort ( March 1578) was a Dutch engraver and draughtsman. He spent the last 12 years of his life in Italy, where he was known as ''Cornelio Fiammingo''. Biography Born in Hoorn or Edam, Cort may have been a pupil of Dirck Volckertsz ...

, Philips Galle,

Maarten van Heemskerck Maarten van Heemskerck (born Maerten Jacobsz van Veen; 1 June 1498 – 1 October 1574), also known as Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen, was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, who spent most of his career in Haarlem. He was a pupil of Jan ...

Lambert Lombard Lambert Lombard (; c. 1505 – August 1566) was a Renaissance painter, architect and theorist for the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. During his career he worked for Jan Gossaert in Middelburg and trained Frans Floris. Biography Lombard wa ...

Hans Vredeman de Vries Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527 – 1607) was a Dutch Renaissance architect, painter, and engineer. Vredeman de Vries is known for his publication in 1583 on garden design and his books with many examples on ornaments (1565) and perspective (1604 ...

Michiel Coxcie Michiel Coxie the Elder, Michiel Coxcie the Elder or Michiel van Coxcie, Latinised name ''Coxius''Michiel Coxie (I) ...

and

Frans Floris Frans Floris, Frans Floris the Elder or Frans Floris de Vriendt (17 April 15191 October 1570) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, print artist and tapestry designer. He is mainly known for his history paintings, allegorical scenes and portraits. ...

.Joannes van Deutecum (I)
in the RKD Diericx is known for republishing these works as well as contracting

Hendrik Goltzius Hendrick Goltzius (, ; born Goltz; January or February 1558 – 1 January 1617) was a German-born Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, lauded for his s ...

during his first few years in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

(1577–1582). After the death of her husband in 1570 all the prints published by their publishing house carried the sentence ''Aux Quatre Vents'' without the name of her husband Cock. She remarried and she and her second husband Lambrecht Bottin are mentioned along with

Christophe Plantin Christophe Plantin (; – 1 July 1589) was a French Renaissance humanist and book Printer (publisher), printer and publisher who resided and worked in Antwerp. He established in Antwerp one of the most prominent publishing houses of his time, th ...

at the top of a list of print makers and print sellers in Antwerp, which was compiled between 1577 and 1580. Diericx died in Antwerp and left over 1,600 copper plates and a large inventory of prints in her estate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diericx, Volcxken 1620s births 1600 deaths Flemish printmakers Businesspeople from Antwerp Flemish women 16th-century businesswomen Businesspeople from the Spanish Netherlands 16th-century printers Women printers