 Since the earlier part of the range would have him achieve sudden prominence at the age of nearly fifty, the later part would seem more likely.There have also been suggestions he was of German extraction; but it now seems clear he was Italian; there are surviving documents of his in Italian addressed to Germans.He signed most of his engravings with a caduceus, the sign of Mercury, and the Munich "Still-Life with Partridge and Gauntlets" (right) with this below his name