Aegidius Sadeler II

Aegidius Sadeler
Aegidius Sadeler engraved by Pieter de Jode II after a self-portrait
Born	1570 Antwerp
Died	1629 Prague
Nationality	Flemish, Bohemian

Aegidius Sadeler or Aegidius Sadeler II (1570–1629) was a Flemish engraver who was principally active at the Prague court of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor and his successors.

Sadeler was born in Antwerp in the Sadeler family of print dealers and engravers. He was the son of Emmanuel de Sayeleer and the nephew of Aegidius I, Jan I en Raphael Sadeler. He was trained by his uncle Jan I and became a member of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1589. He was active in Munich the next year in 1590, in Rome in 1593, in Naples and then again in Munich in 1594-1597. From 1597 he settled in Prague where he became court engraver for Rudolf II and made engraved portraits of notables and engravings after artworks there, most notably paintings by Bartholomeus Spranger, Roelant Savery, Hans von Aachen, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and sculptures by Giambologna and Adriaen de Vries.

His early engavings were mostly faithful copies of works by Albrecht Dürer in the Imperial collection and copies of paintings by notable Italian painters such as Raphael, Tintoretto, Parmigianino, Barocci and Titian or by Northern painters who worked there, such as Paul Bril and Denys Calvaert. In Prague he also engraved portraits of the notables of Rudolf's court, and collaborated with Spranger, Joseph Heintz the Elder and Jacobus Typotius.