Jakob Binck
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(b Cologne, c. 1500; d Königsberg [now Kaliningrad], c. 1569).
German painter, engraver and designer, active in Denmark and Sweden. While he worked as a court painter in Denmark c. 1530–50, he also served the Swedish court temporarily (1541–2) under Gustav Vasa, of whom he executed a portrait: this is untraced but is known through an old copy (Uppsala, U. Kstsaml.). Binck’s picture, according to the copy, belonged to the so-called South German portrait school, showing the King half-figure against a neutral background. It is dominated more by the mass of the body and costume than by the impassive, three-quarter-profile face. Binck’s picture has long since been widely distributed, represented on Swedish banknotes. A similar bust portrait of Christian III was engraved by Binck in 1535 (see fig.) Later, when he returned to Denmark from Sweden, he was influenced by the Dutch art of portraiture, with its more penetrating depiction of character. This can be seen in the portrait of the Danish chancellor Johan Friis (1550; Hillerød, Frederiksborg Slot). Woodcuts after Binck’s drawing of Christian III and the Danish state coat of arms, in a framework in the style of Cornelis Floris (Hollstein, nos 246, 263), were made for the Danish translation of the Bible in 1550. Binck probably collaborated on the exterior and interior decoration of Johan Friis’s castle at Hesselagergaard on Fyn, where parts of the wall paintings with battle and chivalric motifs (?1549–51) have survived.
