Hendrik van der Borcht the elder

It is not clear whether his father was part of the radical Calvinists who had rejected Francis, Duke of Anjou, as the new sovereign of the Low Countries.

[2] Hendrik left his home country with his family in 1586 after the Fall of Antwerp when Calvinists who did not wish to convert back to Catholicism emigrated from the Southern Netherlands.

It is believed they were somewhere in Germany, possibly in Frankfurt or Frankenthal, which were safe havens for Calvinists and where relatives of the families van der Borcht and Noteman were already residing.

Anton Mertens was an art loving man who had commissioned various paintings from the Flemish painter Gillis van Coninxloo who was living in Frankenthal at the time.

In 1613 he came into contact with the court of Heidelberg for which he created together with the Flemish-born painter Anton Mirou the illustrations for a book that commemorated the festive reception and entry of the wedding couple, Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elisabeth Stuart, the daughter of the English King Jacob I, in Frankenthal.

The Earl of Arundel visited him on a diplomatic mission in Germany and subsequently took his eldest son Hendrik into his service.

[2] Meanwhile, his wife, Dina van Couwenberghe, had given birth to three more children in Frankfurt: Anton (1628), Johann Frederick (1630) and Sebastian (1634).

He was also an engraver who created 12 prints for a publication of the Entry of Frederick, Elector Palatine, with Elizabeth, Princess Royal of England, his Consort, into Frankenthal (1613).

[3][4] Van der Borcht's Mountain landscape with a big tree (Historical Museum, Frankfurt) is a small scale painting on copper.

It shows a rocky river landscape dominated by a mighty tree that rises slightly to the left of the central axis.

The tree stands with its visible, spreading root system slightly overhanging the edge of a ridge, which leads from the left foreground into the deep.

The picture demonstrates in the landscape's layout as well as its small-figure staffage the influence of Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625), who had created similar compositions in Rome around 1595.

One (Hermitage, Leningrad) is a large composition in a circular format showing a complex collection of statues, medals, coins, vases and a bowl, against a dark green ground.

It shows tulips, hyacinths, narcissus, anemones, cyclamens and rosemary in a terra cotta vase with a classical motif placed on a marble plinth.

The classical motif shows Romulus and Remus washed ashore and suckled by a she-wolf, the so-called 'Lupa Romana'.