Dirck Volckertsz. Coornhert (without frame)
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Trimmed within platemark: 42.5 × 32.4 cm (16 3/4 × 12 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
87039
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In this print Hendrick Goltzius simultaneously paid homage to his teacher while also displaying his own virtuosic talent for engraving. By manipulating the difficult process, which includes sculpting directly into a metal plate with a chisel-like tool called a burin, Goltzius achieved an astonishing degree of realism. To underscore the aim of this portrait, Goltzius included the inscription Ad Vivum Depictus (Drawn from Life).
About the Artist
Hendrick Goltzius · 1558–1617
Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) was the most celebrated engraver of the Northern Renaissance and a pivotal figure in Dutch Mannerism. Born near the German-Dutch border, Goltzius transformed printmaking into a virtuoso art form through his revolutionary 'swelling line' technique, where the burin was manipulated to create lines of varying thickness that produced unprecedented tonal effects and three-d...