The Dead Saviour Supported by an Angel
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 13 3/4 × 9 15/16 in. (35 × 25.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1960
Accession Number
60.634.13
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the poignant engraving *The Dead Saviour Supported by Angel* (1587), Dutch master engraver Hendrick Goltzius a design by his contemporary Bartholomeus Spr, a leading Mannerist painter at the Habsburg court. This 13 3/4 × 9 15/16-inch sheet captures the limp body of the crucified Christ tenderly upheld by a sorrowful angel, evoking pathos and divine compassion—a classic Christian motif of the *Pietà* reimagined with ethereal grace. Goltzius, renowned for his virtuoso printmaking in Haarlem, elevated engraving to rival painting through swelling line work and dramatic chiaroscuro, techniques ...
About the Artist
Hendrick Goltzius|Bartholomeus Spranger · 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...