Johannes Zurenus

The subject is shown half-length, wearing a fur-lined cloak over a doublet and holding a small open book in his hands. His weathered face and grey beard are rendered with meticulous cross-hatching, and a small coat of arms within a laurel wreath is visible in the upper right. A Latin inscription below the portrait notes that this engraving was based on an earlier painting by Maerten van Heemskerck.

Jan van Zuren was a central figure in the Haarlem humanist circle and a business partner of the philosopher Dirk Volckertsz Coornhert. This portrait reflects the high status of the printing trade and the intellectual culture of the Northern Renaissance, particularly the claim that Haarlem was the birthplace of movable type.