Pluto

Art Historical Context

Behold Hendrick Goltzi's striking *Pluto* (1594), a masterfuloscuro woodcut from Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints collection. This 13 916 x 10 1/4 in. print captures the Roman god of the underworld in a dynamic male nude pose, his muscular form radiating power and classical grandeur. Acquired through the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund in 1917, it Goltzius's as a leading Dutch Mannerist printmaker active in Haarlem during the late Renaissance. The chiaroscuro technique—using multiple woodblocks for line, mid-tones, and shadows—creates a dramatic, sculptural effect akin to painting o...

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...