Hendrick Goltzius

Engraver and painter of the Haarlem School whose work epitomizes the extravagant designs and virtuoso execution of Dutch Mannerism. Encouraged by Karel van Mander he engraved numerous works by Spranger, but after a visit to Rome in 1590, his work acquired a more classicizing tendency and he worked increasingly from his own designs, as well as producing prints that were sophisticated imitations of Dürer and Lucas van Leyden, such as the Life of the Virgin (1593–4). The variety and dazzling execution of his engravings has scarcely been surpassed, and he also made very original chiaroscuro woodcuts. He was a superb draughtsman, equally at home with tiny silverpoint portraits or with vast highly finished pen drawings, such as The Three Graces (London, BM) which have all the bombast of a public performance. In about 1600 he turned to painting, largely abandoning printmaking, executing large hotly coloured works of mainly mythological themes, Vertumnus and Pomona (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam) being a particularly good example, but his real genius was for graphic work, and he inspired numerous other Dutch engravers.

Godfrey, Richard. "Goltzius, Hendrik." In The Oxford Companion to Western Art, edited by Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e1082 (accessed May 8, 2012).