St. James the Great, from Christ, the Apostles and St. Paul with the Creed
ca. 1589
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 6 1/8 x 4 1/4 in. (15.6 x 10.8 cm) plate: 5 15/16 × 4 1/8 in. (15.1 × 10.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.884-4
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold Hendrick Goltzius's masterful engraving *St. James the Great created around 1589 as part of his series *Christ, the Apostles and. Paul with the Creed This intimate portrait, measuring just under 6 by 4 inches, captures the revered apostle in a moment of solemn devotion, embodying the spiritual fervor of late 16th-century Northern Europe. Goltzius, a Dutchmaker and one of the era's greatest engravers, drew from Mannerist influences, blending Italian elegance with Northern precision to elevate prints from mere reproductions to standalone artworks. Engravings like this were revolutionary,...
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...