Peter Perret

Scenographia totius fabricae S. Laurentii in Escoriali1589.

Pieter Perret or Pierre Perret, castilianized Pedro Perret (Antwerp, c. 1555-Madrid, 1625), was a Flemish engraver established in Madrid at the service of Felipe II.

Biography

Born in Antwerp around 1555, he would have studied the art of engraving in Rome with Cornelis Cort, who died in 1578. Half a dozen prints survive from Perret's Roman period in which his good technical mastery can already be seen, even being works of little personality. According to Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, whose sources of information for Perret's biography are scarcely reliable, he would have returned to his homeland on an indeterminate date and there he would have been appointed engraver to the Duke of Bavaria and the Elector of Cologne.

In 1583 Juan de Herrera, wishing to print the plans and topographic views of the El Escorial monastery, over which he had exclusive rights, contacted him and, after some tests, they signed a contract in 1584 for which Herrera had to provide him with the copper plates already drawn by his hand and Perret promised to cut them for 600 ducats, forcing himself not to engrave anything else until he had finished the twelve agreed plates. The work, however, did not It was not completed until 1589, the year in which the engravings began to be sold along with Herrera's explanations, collected in a small book entitled Summary and brief statement of the designs and prints of the San Lorenzo del Escorial factory.

Ortographia del retablo que esta en la chapel mayor de S. Lorentio el Real del Escurial1589.

Despite the prohibition established in the contract, in 1585 Perret made the first of his known portraits, that of Empress Maria of Austria. Between 1591 and 1595, perhaps back in Antwerp, he executed some allegorical engravings, among them the famous tributes dedicated to Juan de Herrera and Felipe II on drawings provided by Otto van Veen (Venius). For these services to the crown in 1595 he was Appointed carver of chambers by Felipe II, with perks of 100 ducats per year. Other work of his from this period are three small plates of prophets (Daniel, Ezekiel and Haggai) after designs by Nicolas de Hoey for the work Icones prophetarum maiorum et minorum (1594) published in Antwerp by Philip Galle. Copies of these three prophets are preserved in the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid.

Settled permanently in Madrid, he will focus on the book business, for which he will provide not only covers and portraits, but typographic marks and small ornaments. No less than 34 books printed in Madrid with prints given by him are known from this stage, thirteen of them came from Luis Sánchez's printing house, with whom he had a closer relationship, to which should be added some more published outside Madrid and especially those who left in Lisbon, where it is possible that he moved in the early years of the XVII century accompanying the court. Some of his most outstanding works from this moment are portraits, a genre in which he reached a high level of quality, among the best known being the Portrait of Saint Ignatius of Loyola included in the Works of Father Ribadeneira, already praised by Francisco Pacheco, in which for the first time he recorded in the signature (1597) the title of royal carver. Also notable are the portraits of the Cistercian theologian Jerónimo Llamas, that of Mateo Alemán, published with the first part of Guzmán de Alfarache, and that of Ginés Rocamora, collected in his Sphera del Universo, which also included an allegory of Astronomy with a strongly mannerist aspect, copied from Johan Sadeler.

Between 1609 and 1625, the probable date of his death, he took charge of a large part of the covers of the books published in Madrid, leaving a deep mark in this section of the publishing business. The Conquest of the Moluccas, by Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola (1609), The veneration due to the bodies of saints and their relics, by Sancho Dávila, Bishop of Jaén (1611); Compendium of the festivities that took place at the beatification of Mother Teresa of Jesus, by Diego de San José (1615); Council and Advisor to Princes, by Lorenzo Ramírez de Prado (1617); Filipe Segundo Rey de España, work of Luis Cabrera de Córdoba (1619), with an image of Philip II as a defender of religion, «quintessence of the iconography of Philip II for posterity"; and Aparato del túmulo real (...) to celebrate the honors of King Don Felipe III, for which, in addition to the cover, he provides two interior illustrations on designs by the architect Juan Gómez delay. His also seems to be the title page of the Eróticas or Amatorias, by Esteban Manuel de Villegas, printed in Nájera (1618) by Juan de Mongastón, in which on a sun surrounded by of stars and the coat of arms of Felipe III is the figures of Horace and Anacreon, a cover that was suppressed from some copies when a literary controversy arose over it.

Married to Isabel de Faria, of Portuguese origin, he had a son of the same name and continuation of the paternal office, although casting the surname he will sign Pedro Perete, whose personality, since Ceán Bermúdez, has been confused with that of his father.