The Eight Beatitudes
ca. 1578
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 10 1/16 x 7 5/16 in. (25.5 x 18.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.601.14(61)
Tags
Art Historical Context
**The Eight Beatitudes**, an exquisite engraving created around 1578 by Dutch artist Hendrick Goltzius (designed) and engraver Philips Galle, captures the profound spiritual message from Christ's Sermon on the Mount in Gospel of Matthew. This intimate sheet, measuring just over 10 by 7 inches, depicts the eight blessings promised to the meek, merciful, and pure of heart, surrounded by symbolic figures including Christ, angels, birds, men. Produced during the late Renaissance in the Netherlands amid religious upheaval from the Reformation, such prints served as accessible devotional aids, bridg...
About the Artist
Hendrick Goltzius|Philips Galle · 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...