Jan Gaspar Dooms (6 March 1597 Antwerp – 1675 Prague) was a Flemish draftsman and copperplate engraver active in Prague.
Life
Jan Gaspar came from the family of Antwerp painter Gaspar Doomer, baptismal record says he was a son of Joost Dooms and Anna van Wijck. In Antwerp Dooms studied in workshop of Pieter de Jode I. Around 1620 he moved to Prague New town, where he bought a house from Pavel Lhotský z Libětína in street V Jirchářích in 1650. In the record, he is named as Doomer from Pomerale or Pomeren. Together with his son obtained town privileges in 1651. Jan Gaspar had a wife named Anna. It's possible, that his family cooperated or done some of the works attributed to him because Dooms's signature is changing. Some sources mention his son Gaspar, other mentions Jan. Thanks to little competition, he became a popular engraver of portraits and figural motifs already in the 1620s. Based on the signature sculpsit Kuttenbergae Gaspar Dooms on the engraving from 1658, it is clear that Dooms stayed in Kutná Hora for some time. There was also another engraver Josef Calasancius Dooms active in Prague, but his relation to Jan Gaspar is unknown.
Work
Dooms created most of his copperplate engraving after his own drawings. However he engraved also motives after painter Karel Škréta, as the oldest example can be polemic book with author's portrait in Dioikésis hoc est Moderamen differentiarum juris communis (Prague 1664) by Jan Jindřich Proškovský. Few theses were illustrated by engravings by Dooms after models of Škréta. The best example of cooperation with Škréta can be considered a cycle of 37 copperplate engravings from the life of Saint Adalbert of Prague for book Rosa Boemica sive Vita sancti Woytiechi (Praha 1668) by Matěj Benedikt Bolelucký z Hradiště. Dooms engraved also frontispiece after model of unknown draftsman Gregor Rolle for book Předrahý poklad pokladnice Českého království, to jest Přemilá … s. Barbora (Prague 1670). Dooms as well just drew up few models realised in the engraving by another Antwerp artist Jan Adriaen Gerhardt de Groos, for example, author's portrait in Phosphorus septicornis (Prague 1673) by Tomáš Pešina z Čechorodu.