Frederick de Wit published his work Lumen Picturae in Amsterdam between 1660 and 1675. It is a book of great historic value that falls within the tradition of the treatises on illustration, which were an essential element in any artist's education up to the impressionist revolution. The complete version of this work, as we present it here, is an excellent introduction to the aesthetic developed in the seventeenth century. It enables us to take up the trail of the education and evolution of a painter in the Dutch Golden Age, characterized by hitherto unknown cultural prosperity and a blossoming of the arts.
This work brought de Wit renown and always featured in the publishing house's catalogue. Even today it is fascinating for the great artistic quality of the tables that contributed to the lasting fame of its author, an undisputed master in the arts of printing, engraving, illustration, and painting.
