Johann Melchior Füssli
Swiss, 1677-1736
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Johann Melchior Füssli was a Swiss draftsman, engraver and etcher . He is best known as a draftsman and engraver of Johann Jakob Scheuchzer's illustrated Bible, for which he made more than 700 preliminary drawings.
Johann Melchior was the son of Johann Caspar Füssli and Magdalena Stutz. He learned the art of etching with Johannes Meyer in Zurich and with the electoral court engraver Samuel Blesendorf in Berlin. While still teaching, he worked on a Bible illustration.
Between 1709 and 1729 he created numerous New Year's papers for Zurich societies. From 1716 to 1718 he illustrated Johann Jakob Scheuchzer's “Helvetiae historia naturalis” and in 1732 his “Investigations of the Baths in Baden”. His 753 drawings for Scheuchzer's “Physica sacra” (1731–35) are an essential contribution to the scientific book illustration of the Baroque era.
