SADELER, Raphael I
(b. ca. 1560, Antwerpen, d. ca. 1628, Venezia)

Biography

Flemish painter and engraver, brother of Jan Sadeler I. He moved to Cologne c. 1579 with his brother Jan I's family; there he became his brother's pupil and collaborated with him for the rest of his life; he also accompanied him to Munich and Italy. Like Jan I, Raphael I returned to Antwerp between 1582 and 1586. In 1582 Raphael was admitted to the Antwerp Guild of St Luke. The brothers' collaboration included engraving and printing various series, of which the Hermits are the most important.

During the Antwerp years Raphael I made engravings after such artists as Marten de Vos, Frans Pourbus II, Quentin Massys, Bartholomäus Spranger, Paul Bril and Hendrick Goltzius. From c. 1591-93 Raphael I was in Munich, where he regularly engraved after works by Joos van Winghe, Hans von Aachen and Peter Candid. Like Jan I, he also worked after Italian masters (e.g. Bassano and Carracci). It is possible that he went to Prague in 1593, the year he obtained a license from Emperor Rudolf II.

The brothers went, accompanied by their nephew Aegidius II, to Verona, then Venice from 1596/7, where they had a shop. In 1604 Rafael returned to Munich, where he remained for most of the rest of his life, of which the last record comes in 1622.