A member of the second generation of a family of reproductive engravers working in Antwerp during the 16th and 17th centuries, Jan Collaert II was also a print publisher. While no documentation has been found regarding his artistic education, he may have been taught engraving from his father Hans Collaert I (ca. 1525-1580), his older brother Adriaen (ca. 1560-1618) or Philips Galle (1537-1612). By 1585 Jan Collaert II had engraved prints for Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) after designs by Goltzius. He was admitted to the Antwerp chpater of the artists’ Guild of St. Luke in 1586 as a master’s son. During the mid 1580s Jan II and Adriaen engraved prints for two Passion series designed by Jan van der Straet (1523-1605, known as Stradanus) published by Galle. Jan II engraved a set of the Seven Planets after designs by Stradanus as well as prints designed by Galle. He continued to engrave for Galle during the 1590s, including two sets of women from the Old and New Testaments to designs by Maarten de Vos (1532-1603). During this decade he also engraved book illustrations for publications of the Plantin Moretus publishing house in Antwerp and prints published by his brother Adriaen and Johannes Baptista Vrients (1552-1610), another Antwerp print publisher. Sometime in the late 1590s Jan II married Elisabeth Galle, one of Phillips Galle’s daughters (his brother Adriaen had married her sister). He took on his first apprentice, Carel van Bouckel, in 1597, and another, Jaspar Baseler, in 1600. Little is known about either of these artists. Jan Collaert II was the assistant dean of the Guild of St. Luke in 1612, dean in 1613 and treasurer in 1617. The last record of him is the payment of his annual dues in September, 1620; he presumably died later that yearl (TNB 12/2012) Selected bibliography: Diels, Ann. “Introduction” to “The Collaert Dynasty,” in The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700. Compiled by Ann Diels and Marjolein Leesberg. 8 vols. Oudeerkerk aan den Ijssel: Sound & Vision Publishers, 2005.