ABSTRACT
One of Claes Visscher's first areas of specialization was landscape prints. Although Visscher's copies of the Small Landscapes are integral in charting this trajectory toward the creation of innovative native Dutch landscapes, this chapter suggests an alternative perspective on the way these prints operated in the north when they were published there in 1612. The earliest instance of Visscher producing copies of unavailable landscape plates, however, is the Small Landscapes set. The copied Small Landscapes might have evoked nostalgia for a lost home and past, particularly among the large populations of southern immigrants who took up residence in the north. Instead, Visscher's specialization in landscapes first took shape through a campaign to republish Flemish landscapes from the sixteenth century. Visscher's investment in recreating the Small Landscapes suggests that he sensed a strong market for these retrospective Flemish images in the Dutch Republic.
