Plantin (after Goltzius)

The figure is shown in a fur-lined coat and pleated ruff, holding a pair of dividers over a closed book. His hand gestures toward the motto 'Labore et Constantia,' set against a background featuring a distant landscape and a classical stone column. The compasses serve as a visual pun on his printing mark: one leg remains fixed (Constancy) while the other traces a circle (Labor).

As the head of the Officina Plantiniana, Plantin was the preeminent publisher of the late Renaissance, printing the Antwerp Polyglot Bible and vital works on botany, geography, and natural philosophy. He was also a member of the Family of Love (Huis der Liefde), a secret mystical sect that emphasized internal spiritual experience over external religious orthodoxy.