St. James the Less, from Christ, the Apostles and St. Paul with the Creed
ca. 1589
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 6 3/16 × 4 5/16 in. (15.7 × 11 cm) plate: 5 7/8 × 4 1/8 in. (15 × 10.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.884-10
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold Hendrick Goltzius's masterful engraving *St. James the Less from Christ, the Apostles and St Paul with the Creed*ca. 1589), a gem from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Prints collection. This intimate work, measuring just 5 7/8 × 4 1/8 inches on the plate, captures the apostle St. James the Less amid a renowned series depicting Christ, the Twelve Apostles, and St. Paul the Creed. Created during the late 16th century in the Netherlands, these prints reflect the era's fervent religious devotion amid the Reformation, serving as devotional aids for homes and churches. Goltzius, a pioneerin...
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...