FIGURES FOR THE SOUL - The Fralin Museum of Art, … Fralin Museum of Art’s programming is made possible by the generous support of The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

FIGURES FOR THE SOULELIZABETH DWYER BARRINGER-LINDNER FELLOW

Front Cover (left to right):

Albrecht Dürer German, 1471-1528The Scourging of Christ (The Flagellation of Christ) from the Engraved Passion series (1507-1512), 1512 Engraving, 4 9/16 x 3 in. (11.59 x 7.62 cm)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1982.5

Hendrick Goltzius, Dutch, 1558 – 1617Pietà, 1596Engraving, 7 1/2 x 5 1/8 in. (19.05 x 13.02 cm) (sheet)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1988.28

The Fralin Museum of Art’s programming is made possible by the generous support of The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

The exhibition is also made possible through generous support of the Arts$, the Suzanne Foley Endowment Fund, WTJU 91.1 FM albemarle Magazine, and Ivy Publications LLC’s Charlottesville Welcome Book.


CATALOGUEROTATION I

Figures for the Soul

PRINTS BY ALBRECHT DÜREROf the many who have praised Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), none so eloquently capture the aesthetic of his work as von Herder. Today esteemed as the premier artist of the Northern Renaissance and the father of German Art, Dürer mastered painting, drawing, watercolor, art theory, and mathematics. Yet, his greatest contribution rests in the field of graphic arts. With the advent of the printing press and the ensuing popularity of the print, Dürer was the first to elevate printmaking to an art form. Drawing on works from The Fralin Museum of Art and the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia, this exhibition examines one of Dürer’s foremost achievements: the religious print.

Arranged chronologically, the following works chart his evolving technique from the rudimentary design of early woodcuts to the refined modulation of late engravings. Among the Museum’s stunning examples are twinned prints from two of his most cel-ebrated series, the Large Passion and the Engraved Passion. Devotional tracts on loan from Special Collections exhibit the often overlooked use of religious prints as visual aids for prayer and meditation. Ultimately, these images inspired devotion as well as technical imitation by rivals and successors, demonstrating why Dürer’s religious prints deserve renewed consideration.

“Among all the paintings here, those by Dürer interest me the

most…[his] are figures which remain in the soul.”

— Johann Gottfried von Herder, 1788

THE EARLY YEARSThis maxim poses a fitting motto for one so extensively trained. Born in Nuremberg, an affluent trading center in southern Germany, Dürer was the third of eighteen children. As a youth, he received instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic and Latin, as well as tutorials on the necessity of loving God and neighbor.2

Initially apprenticed as a goldsmith under his father Albrecht the Elder (1427–1502), Dürer left a silverpoint self-portrait as testament to his early talent. By 1487, he was apprenticed under the local painter Michael Wolgemut, who simultaneously served as a designer under Dürer’s godfather and publishing titan Anton Koberger. Dürer also assisted his

godfather, which likely inspired his earliest woodcuts: book illustrations of saints and fools. As an adult, Dürer traveled to the Upper Rhine, Italy, and the Netherlands, impressing upon the artist a variety of regional styles. By the time of his death in 1528, Dürer as artist, naturalist, and writer had ushered German art from the ornament of the Gothic to the order of the Re-naissance.3

“A talented man without learning is

like a rough mirror.”1 — Albrecht Dürer

1Veit Örtel (1501–1578) became Chair of Greek at the Protestant University at Wittenberg after Philip Melanchthon, whose close friendship with Dürer is widely acknowledged. It is Örtel who recounts Dürer’s profession: “A talented man without learning is like a rough mirror” (Homo ingeniosus sine erudition est quasi speculum impolitum). See Hans Rupprich, ed., Dürer, Schriftlicher Nachlass. I: Autobiographische Schriften. Briefwechsel. Dichtungen, Beischriften, Notizen und Gutachten. Zeugnisse zum persönlichen Leben (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1956), 326, app. 4, quoted in Peter Skrine, “Dürer and the Temper of His Age,” in Essays on Dürer, ed. C. R. Dodwell (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press; Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1973), 24–42, 27, n. 9.

2In a family memoir, Dürer recalls: “This my dear Father was very careful with his children to bring them up in the fear of God; for it was his highest wish to train them well that they might be pleasing in the sight both of God and man” (Dieser mein lieber vatter hat großen fleiß auf seine kinder, die auf die ehr gottes zu ziehen. Dann sein höchst begehren war, daß er seine kinder mit zucht woll aufbrechte, damit sie vor gott und den menschen angenehm würden). For the German and English transcriptions, see, respectively, Hans Rupprich, ed., Dürer, Schriftlicher Nachlass. I: Autobiographische Schriften. Briefwechsel. Dichtungen, Beischriften, Notizen und Gutachten. Zeugnisse zum persönlichen Leben (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1956), 30, ll. 182-86; and William Martin Conway, trans. and ed., The Writings of Albrecht Dürer (London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1958), 35.

3For further reading on Dürer’s life and legacy, see Ernst Rebel, “‘Apelles Germaniae.’ Coordinates of Dürer’s Life and Art,” in Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina, ed. Andrew Robison and Klaus Albrecht Schröder (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Munich, London and New York: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2013), 7–15; the inveterate Erwin Panofsky, Albrecht Dürer, 3rd ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1948), 4–10; and the charming T. D. Barlow, Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer (London: Penguin Books, 1948), 5–25.

1Wild Man Holding Two Shields with a Hare and a Moor’s Head, c. 1480s Martin SchongauerGerman, c. 1445/50–1491Engraving, 3 1/8 in. diam. (sheet)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1986.4

FIGURES FOR THE SOUL

From 1490 to 1494, a period known as the “years of travel” (Wanderjahre), Dürer toured the Upper Rhine along the western border of the Holy Roman Empire.4 During this time, it is certain that he visited Colmar, home to the painter and engraver Martin Schongauer.5 The untimely death of Schongauer just pri-or to Dürer’s arrival precluded the artists from meeting; however, Dürer did meet with Schongauer’s brothers, who permitted the study of his surviving works.

Of the 115 engravings today attributed to Schongauer, perhaps Dürer consulted this late work.6 The wild man, a motif medieval in origin, is variably defined as an eccentric creature and an incarnation of man’s fall from grace.7 Schongauer rendered the woolly figure by using a burin, or metal-tipped tool, to incise the design on a copperplate.8 Here his hallmark use of parallel- and cross-hatch-ing lends volume to rock, grass and figure, while the gracefully executed line of shield and hair account for his longstanding epithet “charming Martin” (Hübsch Martin).9

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4Dürer records the Wanderjahre in a 1524 family history, recounting: “When I had finished my learning, my Father sent me off, and I stayed away four years till he called me back again. As I had gone forth in the year 1490 after Easter (Easter Sunday was April 11), so now I came back again in 1494, as it is reckoned, after Whitsuntide” (Und da ich außgedient hat, schickt mich mein vatter hinwegg, und bliebe vier jahr außen, biß daß mich mein vater wider fodert. Und alß ich im 1490 jar hinwegg zog, nach Ostern, darnach kam ich wider, alß man zehlt 1494 nach Pfingsten). For the German and English tran-scriptions, see, respectively, Hans Rupprich, ed., Dürer, Schriftlicher Nachlass. I: Autobiographische Schriften. Briefwechsel. Dichtungen, Beischriften, Notizen und Gutachten. Zeugnisse zum persönlichen Leben (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1956), 31, ll. 205–210; and William Martin Conway, trans. and ed., The Writings of Albrecht Dürer (London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1958), 35.

5On the life and legacy of Schongauer, see Jane C. Hutchison, “Martin Schongauer: ‘Pictorum Gloria’ (Ca. 1450–1491),” in The Illustrated Bartsch, ed. Walter L. Strauss (New York: Abaris Books, 1996), 8 commentary, pt. 1: 1–9.

6On the statistics of Schongauer’s extant prints, see Till-Holger Borchert, ed., Van Eyck to Dürer: The Influence of Early Netherlandish Painting on European Art, 1430–1530, exh. cat. (New York and London: Thames & Hudson, 2011), 319, cat. no. 152. On this print, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980–96), 8: 301, cat. no. 105; 8 commentary, pt. 1: 263, cat. no. 0801.104.

7For a brief introduction to this motif, see William S. Heckscher, “Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art, Sentiment, and Demonology by Richard Bernheimer,” The Art Bulletin 35, no. 3 (Sept. 1953): 241–43.

8On the intaglio process of engraving, see Felix Brunner, A Handbook of Graphic Reproduction Processes (Switzerland: Arthur Niggli Teufen, 1962), 81–84.

9On Hübsch Martin, see Lothar Schmitt, “Dürer and Schongauer,” in The Early Dürer, ed. Daniel Hess and Thomas Eser, trans. Martina Stökl (London: Thames & Hudson; Nuremberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2012), 312–24, 313, n. 10; and Hutchison, “Martin Schongauer: ‘Pictorum Gloria’ (Ca. 1450–1491),” 5. For the less literal translation of “charming,” see Ian Chilvers, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Art, 3rd ed. (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), s.v. “Schongauer, Martin,” 638.

2The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and the Infant Saint John the Baptist, c. 1499–1501Italian, c. 1460/70–1516Engraving, 5 1/8 x 6 3/8 in. (plate)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1988.17


Dürer’s lifelong interest in Italian classicism awakened during his first visit to Venice (1494–1495), where he may have met Jaco-po de’ Barbari.10 This Venetian painter and printmaker was the first to introduce Dürer to a measured system for rendering the human form. “I would rather have come into posses-sion of his knowledge than of a kingdom,” Dürer would later confess.11

Though little is known of Jacopo, he is con-sidered one of the first Italian Renaissance artists who travelled north.12 The exchange of artistic ideas across the Alps emerges in

one of Jacopo’s earliest prints, The Holy Fam-ily.13 This episode, drawn from an apocryphal account, depicts the meeting of the Infant Christ and John the Baptist shortly after his Presentation at the Temple. Set in a rolling landscape, evocative of the Venetian main-land, the scene exhibits textbook techniques of German engraving. Lines curved at vary-ing intervals create rounded surfaces, while delicate cross-hatchings render shadow. Ja-copo may have also consulted Dürer’s prints, where similarly plumed clouds punctuate the horizon.

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10After more than a century of research, little is known of Jacopo de’ Barbari. For a recent biographical sketch, see Jay A. Levenson, Konrad Oberhuber and Jacquelyn L. Sheehan, Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1973), 341–55, esp. 344 for his ties to Dürer. On Dürer’s interest in Italy, see William Martin Conway, trans. and ed., The Writings of Albrecht Dürer (London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1958), 8.

11Letter from Dürer to childhood friend, Willibald Pirckheimer, Nuremberg 1523. The original passage reads: “Der wies mir man und weib, dÿ er aws der mas gemacht het, und das ich awff dÿse tzeit liber sehen wolt, was sein mainung wer gewest dan ein new kunigraich...” On this episode, see Hans Rupprich, ed., Dürer, Schriftlicher Nachlass. I: Autobiographische Schriften. Briefwechsel. Dichtungen, Beischriften, Notizen und Gutachten. Zeugnisse zum persönlichen Leben (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1956), 101–102, ll. 20–25; Walter L. Strauss, The Book of Hours of the Emperor Maximilian the First (New York: Abaris Books, 1974), 2: 503, quoted in Andrew Robison, “The Drawings of Albrecht Dürer,” in Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina, ed. Andrew Robison and Klaus Albrecht Schröder (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Munich, London and New York: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2013), 17–43, 28, n. 12; and Levenson, Oberhuber and Sheehan, Early Italian Engravings, 344–45, n. 18.

12Jacopo is esteemed as the first Italian Renaissance artist “of note” to venture north into Germany and the Netherlands. However, more than four decades earlier the Milanese Sforza family had sent a court painter by the name of Zanetto Bugatto to the Brussels-based workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1398/1400–1464). See, respectively, Levenson, Oberhuber and Sheehan, Early Italian Engravings, 341; and Marina Belozerskaya, Rethinking the Renaissance: Burgundian Arts Across Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 194–97.

13On this print, see Levenson, Oberhuber and Sheehan, Early Italian Engravings, 346–47, 360, cat. no. 137; and Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1999), 24 commentary, pt. 4: 16–17, cat. no. 2410.004.

3Stultifera navis (The Ship of Fools), Basiliensis (Basel), Johann Bergmann von Olpe, 1st March 1497Sebastian BrantGerman, 1458–1521woodcut, 3/16 x 6 19/64 x 1 31/32 in.On loan from the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library


Dürer knew Sebastian Brant, a Strasbourg native, for whom he made an unsparing like-ness in 1520.14 Today Brant is best known as the author of a biting moral satire titled The Ship of Fools.15 First issued in Basel in 1494, it chronicles a dizzying spectrum of vices. As the Prologue portends: “Here you will find of fools no dearth / And everything you wish on earth.”16 Each of the 112 chapters contains an epigraph, woodcut, and title with accompa-nying Latin verse.17

The 1497 Latin translation preserves this structure with minor additions.18 Ushering in the satire “On the State of Spiritual Abuse” (fol. LXXXIII (r)) is a capped fool who leads two eager donkeys. The spare design of the woodcut is achieved by carving out empty planes of space to level the scene with the printed surface.19 Scholars have sought for over a century to attribute many of these sim-ple illustrations to Dürer.20

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14On the life and legacy of Sebastian Brant, see Edwin H. Zeydel, Sebastian Brant (New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1967), esp. 122–33; id., introduction to The Ship of Fools, by Sebastian Brant (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944), 1–8.

15On this satire, see John Van Cleve, Sebastian Brant’s The Ship of Fools in Critical Perspective, 1800–1991 (Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1993).

16Sebastian Brant, The Ship of Fools (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944), 58.

17On the layout, see Peter Schmitt, “The ‘Upper Rhine Question’: Dürer’s Basel Book Illustrations,” in The Early Dürer, ed. Daniel Hess and Thomas Eser, trans. Martina Stökl (London: Thames & Hudson; Nuremberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2012), 424–33, 426.

18On the 1497 edition, deemed the first and most significant translation, see Zeydel, Sebastian Brant, 92.

19On the history and process of producing woodcuts, see Felix Brunner, A Handbook of Graphic Reproduction Processes (Switzerland: Arthur Niggli Teufen, 1962), 41–44.

20While some deny his involvement, others have attributed between one- to two-thirds of the 115 illustrations to Dürer’s hand. On this debate and the designs assigned to Dürer, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1981), 10 commentary: 516–24, cat. nos. 1001.513a-bb; Willi Kurth, ed., The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1963), 13–14, cat. nos. 49–62; Peter Schmidt, “Why Woodcut? Dürer in Search of his Medium and Role,” in The Early Dürer, ed. Daniel Hess and Thomas Eser, trans. Martina Stökl (London: Thames & Hudson; Nuremberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2012), 146–59, 149.

4Moriae encomium (Praise of Folly), Basileae (Basel), H. Frobenius et N. Episcopius, 1540 Desiderus ErasmusDutch, c. 1466–15366 3/16 x 4 21/64 x 1 3/8 in. On loan from the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

“Hear, thou knight of Christ; ride forth in the name of the Lord, defend the truth, attain the martyr’s crown.”21 In this call to action, Dürer appealed to the acclaimed theologian and scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam to take up Martin Luther’s cause. Yet, Erasmus re-mained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, seeking reform within the established insti-tution. Perhaps Dürer’s disappointment may be seen in his engraved portrait of the schol-ar (cat. no. 14), whose unflattering features prompted Erasmus to concede: “That the portrait is not an altogether striking likeness is no wonder.”22

Despite his loyalty, Erasmus was no less crit-ical of the Church. Among his most popular works was the Praise of Folly.23 From its first print run in 1511 to his death in 1536, thir-ty-six separate editions were issued from twenty-one printers in eleven cities.24 The social satire centers on the wily words of Fol-ly, who ridicules ecclesiastical corruption. At one point, Folly scorns the Pope, inquiring: “How many advantages would these men be deprived of if they were ever assailed by wis-dom? Wisdom did I say? No, even by a single grain of that salt mentioned by Christ.”25

21See William Martin Conway, trans. and ed., The Writings of Albrecht Dürer (London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1958), 157-160; Richard Viladesau, The Triumph of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts, from the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 285-87.

22On this admission, see Shelley Karen Perlove, ed., Renaissance, Reform, Reflections in the Age of Dürer, Bruegel, and Rembrandt. Master Prints from the Albion College Collection, exh. cat. (Dearborn, MI: University of Michigan-Dearborn, 1994), 85-87, cat. no. 5.

23For a general overview of the satire, see R. J. Schoeck, Erasmus of Europe: The Prince of Humanists, 1501-1536 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993), 95-108.

24Clarence H. Miller, introduction to The Praise of Folly, by Desiderus Erasmus (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1979), ix-xxv, xiii.

25“Quantum his abstulerit commoditatum, si semel incessiuerit sapientia? Sapientia dixi? Imo vel mica salis illius, cuius meminit Christus.” Desiderus Erasmus, Moriae encomium (Basileae: H. Frobenius et N. Episcopius, 1540), fol. 266. Translation by id., The Praise of Folly, trans. Clarence H. Miller (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1979), 111.

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“…Eminent are the images of the Passion of Our Lord,

drawn recently by Albrecht Dürer and engraved and printed

by him. Indeed, they are so exquisite, and executed in

the correct perspective, that merchants from all over

Europe purchase them to serve as models for their artists.”26

— Johannes Cochlaeus, 1512

THE PASSION SERIESFrom the early age of twenty-three until his death at fifty-seven, Dürer explored the Passion theme in six separate print series.27 On display are excerpts from two of his most famous cycles the Large and Engraved Passion. The first derives its name from the sheer size of the woodcut.28 Dürer complet-ed the Large Passion in intervals, designing seven prints between 1496/97 and 1500 be-fore completing the final five in 1510. Initial-ly sold as single sheets, the completed series was bound in book form with accompanying

Latin verse in 1511.29 It is difficult to overes-timate the immediate appeal and impact of the Large Passion.30

In the Engraved Series, Dürer reimagined the Passion for the connoisseur.31 Completed between 1507 and 1512, the cycle contains fifteen prints with elegant detail and subtle gradations of light and shadow. Though never issued in book form, Dürer often gave the complete series as gifts.

26Johannes Cochlaeus, Cosmographia Pomponij Mele: Authoris nitidissimi tribus libris digesta (Nuremberg, 1512): “…Quippe extant figurae passionis Domini (quas nuper Albertus Durer depinxit atque in aes excidit idemque impressit) adeo subtiles sane atque e vera perspectiva efformatae, ut mercatores ex tota Europa emant, suis exemplaria pictoribus.” See Hans Rupprich, ed., Dürer, Schriftlicher Nachlass. I: Autobiographische Schriften. Briefwechsel. Dichtungen, Beischriften, Notizen und Gutachten. Zeugnisse zum persönlichen Leben (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1956), 293, no. 4. Translation by Peter Strieder, Albrecht Dürer: Paintings, Prints, Drawings, trans. Nancy M. Gordon and Walter L. Strauss (New York: Abaris Books, 1982), 9.

27Collectively, the series includes: the Albertina Passion (c. 1494), the Large Passion (1496/97-1500), the Engraved Passion (1507-12), the Small Passion (1508-11), the Green Passion (1504), and the Oblong Passion (1520-24). See Jordan Kantor, ed., Dürer’s Passions, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Art Museums, 2000), 12-48, esp. 13, n. 1.

28For a general introduction to the Large Passion, see: Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-81), 10: 99-110, cat. nos. 4-15; 10 commentary: 246-56, cat. nos. 1001.204-215; Strieder, Albrecht Dürer, 266-67, cat. nos. 312-15; and Giulia Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; London: The British Museum Press, a division of the British Museum Co., 2002), 173-79, 118a-1.

29Benedikt Schwalbe (1456/59-1521), more commonly known by his Graecized name Benedict Cheldonius, compiled the accompanying verse. A native of Nuremberg and a mutual friend of Willibald Pirckheimer, this Benedictine monk frequently collaborated with Dürer. For a general introduction to the life and work of Cheldonius, see Franz Posset, Renaissance Monks: Monastic Humanism in Six Biographical Sketches, Studies in Medieval and Reformation Tradition CVIII (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2005), 63-92; and David Hotchkiss Price, Albrecht Dürer’s Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2003), 135-40.

30Studies on the early modern print uniformly reinforce the popular, as well as artistic, appeal of this series. One simply claims: “The impact of these books [including the Large Passion], in which text was of minor importance compared to the illustrations, must have been tremendous on both the general public and artist alike.” See Ellen Jacobowitz and Stephanie Loeb Stepanek, The Prints of Lucas van Leyden & His Contemporaries (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 33.

31For a general introduction to the Engraved Passion, see Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch, 10: 11-16, cat. nos. 3-18; 10 commentary: 18-60, cat. nos. 1001.003-018; Strieder, Albrecht Dürer, 272-76, cat. nos. 323-38; and Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy, 171-73, 116a-d.

5The Flagellation of Christ from the Large Passion series, c. 1496–1497Albrecht DürerGerman, 1471–1528Woodcut, 15 1/4 x 10 7/8 in. (sheet)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1982.4


One of seven woodcuts from the Large Pas-sion executed between 1497 and 1500, this scene depicts the Flagellation.32 Bound to a central column, Christ appears amidst a crowd of grotesque figures, whose derisive taunts are almost audible. Anguished, yet de-fiant in posture, he braces before the reeds, ropes, and fists rent his flesh. According to the Gospel, Christ was scourged just prior to the Crucifixion in fulfillment of the Old Tes-tament Prophecy: “…he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniqui-ties: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Is. 53:5).

Dürer’s emotive rendering confronts the viewer with what one theologian terms “the epic battle between good and evil.”33 Christ’s classical form, no doubt inspired by Dürer’s time in Italy, remains unblemished as if fore-telling his imminent triumph.34 Close anal-ysis of his silhouette, created by dark vivid lines against planes of white, reveals a stylis-tic trait typical of Dürer’s early prints.35

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32On this print, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-81), 10: 103, cat. no. 8 (117); 10 commentary: 249-50, cat. no. 1001.208; Willi Kurth, ed., The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1963), 21, cat. no. 122; and Giulia Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; London: The British Museum Press, a division of the British Museum Co., 2002), 173-79, 118a-1, esp. 118e.

33On the theological significance of Dürer’s Large Passion series, see Richard Viladesau, The Triumph of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts, from the Renaissance to the Counter-Ref-ormation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 145.

34On the “unusually classicized” quality of this scene, see David Hotchkiss Price, Albrecht Dürer’s Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michi-gan Press, 2003), 186-87, fig. 6.12.

35On the formal development of Dürer’s line and tonality, see Andrew Robison, “The Drawings of Albrecht Dürer,” in Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina, ed. Andrew Robison and Klaus Albrecht Schröder (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Munich, London, New York: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2013), 17-43, 39.


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6Christ Descending into Limbo from the Large Passion series, 1510 Albrecht DürerGerman, 1471–1528Woodcut, 15 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. (sheet)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1987.1


Accounts from the New Testament and apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus document Christ’s descent into the depths of the un-derworld after the Crucifixion and before the Resurrection.36 Dürer imaginatively me-morializes the event beneath a vaulted sky.37 Christ, crowned with the tri-radiant nimbus halo symbolic of the Christian Trinity, kneels with arm outstretched to gather saved souls exiled from the time of Creation. It is thought that here he reaches for his cousin, John the Baptist.

Designed in 1510, this scene displays Dürer at the height of his skill.38 Far from the Flag-ellation, where crowds crush, order and clar-ity pervade the narrative. Precise systems of parallel- and cross-hatchings endow the woodcut with a spectrum of tonalities, in-cluding a moderate grey tone that enriches the depth of scene.

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36According to Saint Paul, Christ “descended first into the lower parts of the earth” (Eph. 4:9) before ascending to Heaven. On the origins of this Roman Catholic belief, see Kate Mary Warren, “Harrowing of Hell,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910), 28 Nov. 2014, <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07143d.htm>.

37On this print, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-81), 10: 109, cat. no. 14; 10 commentary: 254-55, cat. no. 1001.214.; Willi Kurth, ed., The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1963), 30, cat. no. 217; and Giulia Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; London: The British Museum Press, a division of the British Museum Co., 2002), 173-79, 118a-1, esp. 118i.

38On the formal evolution of Dürer’s woodcuts, see T. D. Barlow, The Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer (London: Penguin Books, 1948), 5-19.


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7The Flagellation of Christ from the Engraved Passion series, 1512Albrecht DürerGerman, 1471–1528Engraving, 4 9/16 x 3 in. (sheet)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1982.5


Designed and executed more than a decade after the woodcut Flagellation, Dürer now stages this violent episode in the immediate foreground of the scene.39 Without crowd or clamor, Christ turns to embrace the column before the blows of reed and rope. Meticulous passages of minute hatchings create delicate planes of light and shadow, highlighting Christ as the unmediated focus of the view-er.40

The emotive appeal of this image and accom-panying scenes from the Engraved Passion were intended to inspire prayer and medita-tion. In a letter to Georg Spalatin, chaplain to Friedrich the Wise, Elector of Saxony, Dürer explains: “I send you here two little prints of the Cross…One is for your Worship.”41 Per-haps one of these “little prints” was from the Engraved series. Indeed, the prayer book of Friedrich the Wise integrates this complete series alongside manuscript prayers.42

22

39On this print, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-81), 10: 11, cat. no. 8; 10 commentary: 32, cat. no. 1001.008; and Giulia Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; London: The British Museum Press, a division of the British Museum Co., 2002), 171-73, 116a-d.

40On the formal cultivation of light and shadow, as well as the emergence of moderate tones, see Andrew Robison, “The Drawings of Albrecht Dürer,” in Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina, ed. Andrew Robison and Klaus Albrecht Schröder (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Munich, London, New York: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2013), 17-43, 39; and Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy, 172-73, cat. no. 116d.

41William Martin Conway, trans. and ed., The Writings of Albrecht Dürer (London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1958), 90.

42Only recently has the accompanying text been identified. The first source is the Patris Sapientia (Wisdom of the Father), a medieval Latin hymn composed of eight strophes. Since the strophes are too few in number to pair with Dürer’s cycle of fifteen engraved images, prose prayers are also interspersed. See David Hotchkiss Price, Albrecht Dürer’s Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2003), 131-32, 296, n. 50, 51.


23

8De vita et beneficijs salvatorie (The Imitation of Christ), Cologne, Ulrich Zel, c. 1488Thomas à KempisNetherlandish writer, c. 1379/80–14714 13/32 x 3 11/32 x 43/64 in. On loan from the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library


The contemplative devotion that Dürer’s Pas-sion series sought to inspire may be found in the pages of The Imitation of Christ, today recognized as one of the most influential books in western Christian history. Written between 1420 and 1427, the text is attribut-ed to Thomas à Kempis, a leading member of the northern reform movement known as the New Devotion (Devotio Moderna). Both text and movement urged the faithful to seek a personal connection with Christ by medi-tating on his life and Passion.43

Of the roughly fifty printed editions before 1500, this pocketsize Imitation hosts a small passage on the Flagellation. Here the narra-tor, often described as a “spiritual coach,” ex-horts the reader to praise Christ as the one who endured scourging for the absolution of sin.44 The reader must recall his “most tight binding to the column” (strictissima alli-gatione ad columna), a task made easier by Dürer’s sensitive portrayals.45

24

43For a general overview of The Imitation of Christ and New Devotion, see John Van Engen, introduction to Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings (New York and Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1988), 5-61.

44On the accessibility of its text, see Sally Cunneen, preface to The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis, ed. and trans. Joseph N. Tylenda, S. J. (New York: Random House Inc., 1998), xv-xxvi, xv.

45The passage commences: “Laudo e honorifico te supplici cum laude: praecipue pro tua strictissima alligatione ad columnam durissimam ut nos a peccatorum nostrorum vinculis absolueres et perpetuae liberatati restitueres.” See Thomas à Kempis, De vita et beneficijs salvatorie Jhesu cristi devotissime meditationes cu[m] gratiaru[m] actione (Cologne: s. t. n., 1490), fol. G.iv.


25

“Lord, my God, I desire to praise you...” (Domine deus meus

laudare te desidero...)— The Imitation of Christ, fol. A.ii (v)

9

Saint Eustace, c. 1501Albrecht DürerGerman, 1471–1528Engraving, 13 7/8 x 10 1/8 in. (sheet)Gift of The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, 2004.1


“I believe that no man lives who can grasp the whole beauty of the meanest living thing,” Dürer once stated.46 Despite reservation, Dürer took delight in recording the natural world. Detailed drawings and watercolors document flora and fauna, from tufts of grass to sprays of feathers.47

The landscape of Saint Eustace testifies to this occupation.48 Drawn from the thir-teenth-century hagiographies of the Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea), the scene depicts the Roman general, Placidus, who converts to Christianity after beholding Christ crucified in miniature between the antlers of a stag. The size of this image, considered Dürer’s largest copperplate engraving, offers ample opportunity to explore the intricacies of his style. The greyhounds lingering in the fore-ground have charmed generations, including the sixteenth-century art historian Giorgio Vasari, who marveled how their varied pre-sentation “could not be more perfect.”49

46Louis Arthur Holman, Albert Dürer: The Man in His Own Eyes and in the Eyes of His Neighbors (Boston: Charles E. Goodspeed & Co., 1922), 5.

47On Dürer and nature, see Andrew Robison and Klaus Albrecht Schröder, eds., Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina, exh. cat. (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Munich, London and New York: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2013), 29-34, 134-41, cat. nos. 37-39.

48On this print, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-81), 10: 51, cat. no. 57; 10 commentary: 128-29, cat. no. 10001.057; Giulia Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; London: The British Museum Press, a division of the British Museum Co., 2002), 140-42, cat. no. 74; and Anna Scherbaum, “Saint Eustace,” in Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina, exh. cat. (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Munich, London and New York: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2013), 130-31, cat. no. 25.

49Giorgio Vasari, “Marc’ Antonio Bolognese and Others,” in Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, trans. Gaston du C. De Vere, vol. 1 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), 80.


2726

10

Rhinoceros, 1515 Albrecht DürerGerman, 1471–1528Woodcut, 10 x 12 in. (sheet), Meder 273Gift of the Honorable Hugh S. Cumming, 1982.30.5


Dürer never set eyes on a rhinoceros. His only encounter was a drawing sent by a Por-tuguese correspondent, who thought Dürer might also enjoy the creature that had cap-tivated Lisbon.50 Perhaps Dürer heard how King Dom Manuel I had organized an ex-periment to determine if the elephant really was its historical foe.51 It is reported that the mere sight of the rhinoceros caused the ele-phant to flee!

Dürer did delight in the rhinoceros, which he believed to be “swift, jolly and crafty.”52 Af-ter a detailed pen drawing, he designed this fanciful woodcut. Patterned shells give shape to its impenetrable torso, drawing compari-son to Dürer’s own armorial designs.53 While the anatomical inaccuracies are now widely acknowledged, Dürer’s creature became the prototype for illustrated works on travel and natural history for the next three hundred years.54

28

50Dürer’s correspondent may have been the Moravian printer, Valentim Fernandes, who resided in Lisbon. On the colorful history of this print, see T. H. Clarke, The Rhinoceros from Dürer to Stubbs: 1515–1799 (London: Sotheby’s, 1988), 16-20.

51Pliny the Elder (AD 23-AD 79) initiated the rivalry, when describing the rhinoceros as “another natural born enemy of the Elephant.” The other reputed rival was the dragon. See The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 2, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (London: George Bell & Sons, 1890), 259-60, chs. 11-12; 278, ch. 20.

52This charming account is drawn from the German inscription that accompanies the woodcut. For the complete inscription, as well as alternative translations, see Dr. James Parsons, Philosophical Transactions 42, no. 470 (1743): letter VIII, 524, quoted in Clarke, The Rhinoceros from Dürer to Stubbs, 20; James Byam Shaw, “Dürer as Engraver,” in Essays on Dürer, ed. C. R. Dodwell (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press; Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1973), 52; and Peter Strieder, Albrecht Dürer: Paintings, Prints, Drawings, trans. Nancy M. Gordon and Walter L. Strauss (New York: Abaris Books), 365. 53On this print, see: Willi Kurth, ed., The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1963), 35, cat. no. 299; Shaw, “Dürer as Engraver,” 52-53, fig. 11; Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-81), 10: 230, cat. no. 136; 10 commentary: 414-16, cat. no. 1001.336; Clarke, The Rhinoceros from Dürer to Stubbs, 20-23, fig. 2; and Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy, 285-87, cat. no. 243.

54While the longevity of Dürer’s print is widely acknowledged, a 1976 leaflet from the British Museum posited: “…probably no other animal picture has exerted such a profound influence on the arts.” See Shaw, “Dürer as Engraver,” 52; and Clarke, The Rhinoceros from Dürer to Stubbs, 20, 172, n. 14.


29

11

The Rise and Fall of Man, c. 1513 Albrecht Altdorfer German, c. 1480–1538Woodcut, set of 40 woodcuts, 2 7/8 x 1 15/16 in. (ea. image) Gift of Gertrude Weber, 2003.19.1-40


Albrecht Altdorfer’s specialty was the wood-cut. By the second decade of the sixteenth century, the demand for woodcuts by con-noisseurs and collectors inspired artists like Altdorfer to test the expressive limits of scale.55

Known as “the little Albert [Dürer],” he dis-played as much ingenuity and imagination as his namesake in the images produced for The Rise and Fall of Man.56 This cycle, com-posed of forty woodcuts, illustrates Chris-tian history from the Original Sin to the Last Judgment.57 Here Christ’s Descent into

Limbo depicts a haloed Redeemer beneath a distorted demon. Far from the clarity that pervades Dürer’s scene, Altdorfer purpose-fully obscures Christ’s features, while using a dense linear network to blacken the depths of Limbo. According to one estimate, the sheer detail seen in this cycle would have taken a skilled woodblock cutter two to three years to finish.58

30

55On the sixteenth-century woodcut and its relation to Altdorfer, see David Landau and Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 1470-1550 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994), 202-6, 202.

56The French were the first to bequeath this diminutive to Altdorfer. See William Bell Scott, introduction to The Fall of Man by Albrecht Altdorfer, ed. Alfred Aspland, The Holbein Society’s Facsimile Reprints 12 (Manchester: Published for the Holbein Society by A. Bros., 1876), 7-17, 10. For a recent biographical sketch of this Regensburg native, see Christopher S. Wood, Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape, 2nd ed. (London: Reaktion Books, 2014), 79-96.

57On this print series, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980), 14: 107-46, cat. nos. 1-40; Jacqueline and Maurice Guillaud, eds., Altdorfer and Fantastic Realism in German Art, exh. cat. (Paris: Guillaud Editions; New York: Rizzoli Books, 1984), 86-93, cat. nos. 39-80; Gisela Goldberg, Albrecht Altdorfer: Meister von Landschaft, Raum, Licht (Zürich: Verlag Schnell & Steiner München, 1988), 68-72, fig. 45; and Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 202-6.

58On this estimate, see Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, 205-6.

12

David Playing the Harp Before Saul, c. 1508 Lucas van LeydenDutch, c. 1489/94–1533Engraving, 10 1/16 x 7 1/8 in. (plate)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1981.108


By the early sixteenth century, Lucas van Leyden rivaled Dürer’s graphic genius.59 “I am surprised,” remarked one man at a Ger-man fair in 1520, “that there were so few of [Dürer’s] works…whereas the engravings of the Dutchman Lucas were so numerous.”60 Perhaps Dürer expressed similar astonish-ment when he met the youth while traveling through the Netherlands in the early 1520s.61

This early print preserves the exceptional skill of Lucas.62 Considered one of his most significant achievements, it depicts the Old Testament shepherd and monarch, David, before King Saul (I Sm. 18:11). Despite the melodic harmony of the youth’s harp, an en-raged Saul brandishes a spear, aiming it to-wards David. Enhancing the tension is the broad tonal scale, indicative of Lucas’ style. Velvety black passages alongside moderate grays lend volume and depth to setting, fig-ures, and objects. The stunning relief-like effect endows the scene with a greater imme-diacy.

32

59The longstanding rivalry between Dürer and Lucas van Leyden began with sixteenth-century art historian Giorgio Vasari, who dedicated a biography to the Dutch artist. See Giorgio Vasari, “Marc’ Antonio Bolognese and Others,” in Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, trans. Gaston du C. De Vere, vol. 2 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), 79-81, 79.

60Letter from Johannes Cochlaeus to Willibald Pirckheimer, Frankfurt 1520. See Joos Bruyn, “Lucas van Leyden en zijn leidse tijdgenoten in hun relatie tot Zuid-Nederland,” Miscellanea I.Q. van Regteren Altena (Amsterdam 1969), 44-47, trans. Peter Parshall, “Lucas van Leyden’s Narrative Style,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 29 (1978): 185-238, 230, quoted in Jacobowitz and Stepanek, The Prints of Lucas van Leyden & His Contemporaries, 13-14, n. 27.

61Dürer kept a diary or memory book during his visit to the Netherlands. While in Antwerp from the 8 of June to the 3 of July, 1521, he not only drew a metal-point portrait of Lucas, but also exchanged eight florins worth of his prints for those by the Dutch artist. See William Martin Conway, trans. and ed., The Writings of Albrecht Dürer (London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1958), 122-23.

62On this engraving, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1981), 12: 159, cat. no. 27; and Ellen S. Jacobowitz and Stephanie Loeb Stepanek, The Prints of Lucas van Leyden & His Contemporaries (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 64-65, cat. no. 13.


33

13Portrait of Martin Luther as an Augustinian Monk, 1521 Lucas Cranach the ElderGerman, 1472–1553Engraving, second state, 8 1/4 x 6 in. (sheet)Gift of the Honorable Hugh S. Cumming, 1982.30.6


As one of the first European portrait engrav-ers, Dürer memorialized burghers, electors, scholars, cardinals, and reformers.63 Of all the sitters who sought his hand, only one proved elusive: Martin Luther.64 He never met Lu-ther nor did he engrave his likeness, though not for want of admiration. “God helping me,” wrote Dürer, “if I meet Dr. Martin Luther, I in-tend to draw a careful portrait of him from life and to engrave it on copper, for a lasting remembrance of a Christian man who helped me out of great distress.”65 By 1518, Luther recorded a gift from the artist, and as early as

the 1520s, it is documented that Dürer owned several written works by the reformer.66

Lucas Cranach, with whom Dürer had col-laborated years earlier, did portray Luther with the clarity and conviction that defined his writings.67 Seen in a bust-length profile pose, Luther appears resolute in the cowl and habit of the Augustinian order to which he belonged.

34

63On his pioneering role as a portrait engraver, see Shelley Karen Perlove, ed., Renaissance, Reform, Reflections in the Age of Dürer, Bruegel, and Rembrandt. Master Prints from the Albion College Collection, exh. cat. (Dearborn, MI: University of Michigan-Dearborn, 1994), 85-87, cat. no. 5.

64Unlike his colleagues, Dürer insisted on drawing each of his sitters from life. Without the opportunity to study Luther from life, Dürer never rendered the reformer with the burin. On this theory, see David Hotchkiss Price, Albrecht Dürer’s Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2003), 248.

65Letter from Albrecht Dürer to Georg Spalatin (1484-1545), Chaplain to Friedrich the Wise, Elector of Saxony, early 1520. See William Martin Conway, trans. and ed., The Writings of Albrecht Dürer (London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1958), 89-90.

66On the gift and writings, see ibid., 107; and Richard Viladesau, The Triumph of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts, from the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 284-85.

67On this portrait engraving, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980), 11: 318, cat. no. 6; Werner Schade, Cranach: A Family of Master Painters, trans. Helen Sebba (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1980), 52, pl. 110; and Bodo Brinkmann, ed., Cranach, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts; New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2007), 186-87, cat. no. 37.


35

14

Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1526 Albrecht DürerGerman, 1471–1528Engraving, 9 3/4 x 7 1/2 in. (plate)Gift of Honorable Hugh S. Cumming, 1982.30.4


While traveling through the Netherlands (1520-1521), Dürer commonly gave Passion prints as gifts. One documented recipient was the theologian and scholar, Erasmus of Rotterdam, who observed, “…if you should spread on pigments, you would injure the work.”68

This portrait embodies all of the excellence ascribed to Dürer.69 Erasmus, seen in the con-templative seclusion of his study, appears be-fore a lectern mid-composition. The ledge of

cumbersome books may refer to his prolific writings, including the Praise of Folly, while a vase of violets and lilies-of-the-valley evoke modesty and purity. Each element, whether book clasp or quill pen, illustrates Dürer’s adept handling of the burin, which creates soft gradations of light and shadow. Eras-mus would later profess to a mutual friend, “[Dürer] is an artist, worthy never to die.”70

36

68While touring the Netherlands, Dürer kept a diary or memory book, in which he records: “I have also given Erasmus of Rotterdam a Passion engraved in copper.” See William Martin Conway, trans. and ed., The Writings of Albrecht Dürer (London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1958), 102. On Erasmus’ appraisal, see Shelley Karen Perlove, ed., Renaissance, Reform, Reflections in the Age of Dürer, Bruegel, and Rembrandt. Master Prints from the Albion College Collection, exh. cat. (Dearborn, MI: University of Michigan-Dearborn, 1994), 85-87, cat. no. 5.

69On this portrait engraving, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-81), 10: 94, cat. no. 107; 10 commentary: 238, cat. no. 1001.107; Perlove, ed., Renaissance, Reform, Reflections in the Age of Dürer, Bruegel, and Rembrandt, 85-87, cat. no. 5; and Giulia Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; London: The British Museum Press, a division of the British Museum Co., 2002), 295, cat. no. 254.

70Letter from Erasmus to Willibald Pirckheimer, Basle, 19 July 1523. The Latin reads: “S. Durerò gratulor ex animo: dignus est artifex qui nunquam moriatur.” See Peter Strieder, Albrecht Dürer: Paint-ings, Prints, Drawings, trans. Nancy M. Gordon and Walter L. Strauss (New York: Abaris Books), 372.


37

CATALOGUEROTATION II

Figures for the Soul

HENDRICK GOLTZIUS AND HIS LEGACYDutch biographer Karel van Mander (1548–1606) was among the first to predict the fame of printer and engraver Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617). In The Book of Painters (Het Schilder-boeck) (1604), Van Mander docu-ments the rise of Goltzius from the son of a stained–glass painter to the celebrated Michelangelo of the North. These pages re-veal a wry personality and a prolific talent, one widely regarded to rival that of Albrecht Dürer. Today Goltzius is recognized as one of the last painter–engravers, whose command of the graphic line equaled if not surpassed the draughtsmanship of the painter. Despite his innovative technique, little attention has been given to Goltzius outside specialist cir-cles. This exhibition examines his contribu-tions to the graphic canon by drawing selec-

tions from The Fralin Museum of Art and the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia.

Arranged chronologically, the following prints trace Goltzius’ early influences and evolving aesthetic, capturing both the arti-ficiality of Haarlem’s Mannerism and the or-der of Italy’s Classicism. Collectively, these prints exhibit the versatile technique that successors and specialists continue to cele-brate.

“. . . he has nothing to fear; for the fame of his works

shall live on.”— Karel van Mander, 1604

1Karel van Mander, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604), ed. Hessel Miedema, 6 vols. (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1994-99), I: 402-3, fol. 286r.

2For a personal account of Goltzius’ life and legacy, see friend and fellow artist Van Mander, ibid., 384-407, fols. 281v-87r. For recent biographical studies, see Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 12-21; and Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-82), 3: 7-8.

3On the rarely discussed statistics of Goltzius’ production, see Nadine Orenstein, “Hendrick Goltzius,” in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003), http://www.metmuseum. org/toah/hd/golt/hd_golt.htm.

BIOGRAPHYBorn in 1558 on the German border in mod-ern-day Bracht, Hendrick Goltzius was a vi-vacious and at times insubordinate child.2 His youth was an index of disasters. At only a year old, he fell into the fire and severely burned both hands. A well–meaning neigh-bor in an attempt to remedy the pain ban-daged them so tightly his tendons fused; he was never again able to fully extend his right hand, a tragedy he later documented. Despite the handicap, Goltzius possessed an exceptional aptitude for drawing, a skill that must have proven useful as an apprentice in his father’s stained–glass workshop. By 1575, he was accepted to train under the Dutch en-graver Dirck Volckertsz. Coornhert, whom he followed to Haarlem two years later. There

Goltzius founded a studio, publishing house and joint Academy with fellow artists. In 1600, perhaps due to failing health, he dedicated himself solely to painting, relinquishing the workshop to his stepson Jacob Matham. By the time of his death in 1617, Goltzius had produced roughly 160 prints, 500 drawings and 50 paintings.3 Perhaps it is this profound versatility that prompted Van Mander to ob-serve how he so loved his freedom.

1Coat of Arms of Death, 1503Albrecht Dürer German, 1471–1528Engraving, 8 5/8 x 6 1/8 in. (sheet)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1984.20


Albrecht Dürer, often called the Leonardo of the North, was the first to elevate printmak-ing to an independent art form.4 Among his roughly one hundred surviving engravings is this allegory of youth and old age.5 A young woman in a fashionable dance hall costume with a bridal crown tolerates the advances of a wild man who symbolizes sexual desire. This print exhibits Dürer’s masterful line. Its precise networks of parallel- and cross-hatch-ing evoke a rich variety of textures, whether

corseted gown, hirsute figure or foliate detail. By the end of the sixteenth century, Goltzius would not only mimic but actively seek to challenge Dürer’s graphic legacy, going so far as to circulate prints under Dürer’s name!6

44

4On Dürer’s life and legacy, see Ernst Rebel, “‘Apelles Germaniae.’ Coordinates of Dürer’s Life and Art,” in Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina, ed. Andrew Robison and Klaus Albrecht Schröder (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Munich, London and New York: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2013), 7-15; Erwin Panofsky, Albrecht Dürer, 3rd ed. (Princ-eton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1948), 4-10; and T. D. Barlow, Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer (London: Penguin Books, 1948), 5-25.

5On Dürer’s manifold production, see Panofsky, Albrecht Dürer, 10. On this print, also known as the Coat of Arms of Vanitas and the Coat of Arms with a Skull, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-81), 10 commentary: 223-24, cat. no. 1001.101 (109); and Giulia Bartrum, German Renaissance Prints, 1490-1550 (London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by the British Museum Press, 1995), 32-35, cat. no. 18.

6In the early 1590s, Goltzius rendered the Life of the Virgin, a series of prints executed after the manner of select Old Masters. According to Van Mander, Goltzius circulated the Circumcision under Dürer’s name to test his talent, if not his superiority. On this ploy, see Karel van Mander, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604), ed. Hessel Miedema, 6 vols. (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1994-99), I: 384-407, fols. 281v-87r, see also cat. no. 9.


45

2The Annunciation, 1553 Heinrich AldegreverGerman, 1502–1561 Engraving, 4 1/4 x 2 3/4 in. (plate)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1988.2


Among the next generation of German en-gravers is a select group called the Little Masters, who patterned their small ornamen-tal prints after Dürer.7 One of the principle figures of this movement was Heinrich Alde-grever known as “the Albert of Westphalia.”8 In this early Annunciation, he sensitively preserves Dürer’s aesthetic.9 Here, the Arch-angel Gabriel has already greeted the Virgin, for the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove has come to overshadow her (Lk. 1:26–38). Intri-cate systems of parallel– and cross–hatching

again suggest a spectrum of textures from the gloss of a convex mirror to the stone of fissured ruins. The vivid contrast of light and shadow, an effect that often dramatiz-es Dürer’s narratives, provides Aldegrever’s figures with volume and plasticity. After the mid–century death of Aldegrever and his fel-low Little Masters, the Netherlands succeed-ed Germany as the leading center for print production.10

46

7For an introduction to the Little Masters, including Aldegrever, see William Bell Scott, The Little Masters (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1879), 17-23, 88-104; and A. Hyatt Mayor, Prints & People. A Social History of Printed Pictures (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1971), n. pp., figs. 315-17.

8On Aldegrever’s life and epithet “Albert of Westphalia,” see Giulia Bartrum, German Renaissance Prints, 1490-1550 (London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by the British Museum Press, 1995), 179- 80; Clara Erskine Clement Waters, Painters, Sculptors, Architects, Engravers, and Their Works: A Handbook (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1897), 19-20; and Ralph N. Wornum, The Epochs of Painting Characterized. A Sketch of the History of Painting, Ancient and Modern, Showing Its Gradual and Various Development from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time (London: C. Cox, 1847), 347.

9On this print, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980), 16: 154, cat. no. 38 (373).

10It is widely acknowledged that Antwerp emerged as one of the preeminent printing centers in late sixteenth-century Europe. As early as 1581 in the Description of all the Low Countries (Descrittione de tutti i Paesi Bassi), Lodovico Guicciardini commends the printing house of Christopher Plantin as the leading establishment in Europe. See Werner Waterschoot, “Antwerp: books, publishing and cultural production before 1585,” in Urban Achievement in Early Modern Europe: Golden Ages in Antwerp, Amsterdam and London, ed. Patrick O’Brien (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 233-48, esp. 233, n. 1.


“I have also heard him say . . . he had never done anything with

which he was entirely pleased or which satisfied him.”11

— Karel van Mander, 1604


HAARLEM AND THE HEIGHT OF MANNERISMWhen the nineteen–year–old Goltzius ac-companied his teacher to Haarlem in 1577, he could not have foreseen his meteoric rise to success.12 Only a year later, he opened a publishing firm, and by 1580, his prints achieved international recognition. That same year Cologne publisher Georg Braun solicited Goltzius to memorialize Leonardo’s iconic Last Supper. By 1585, the Jesuits peti-tioned him to illustrate the Gospels. Though Goltzius turned down this collaboration, the product of that proposed commision (cat. no. 5) serves as a testament to the scope of proj-ects he received, and at times, rejected.13

Goltzius’ fame rests on his unrivalled han-dling of the burin, the metal–tipped tool used to incise the design of an engraving. Over the course of the 1580s, his technique evolved from a fine, delicate line to one with an in-creasingly pronounced swell.14 This transfor-mation in large part is due to Van Mander, who introduced his friend to the exaggerat-ed drawings of the Bohemian court painter Bartholomeus Spranger (1546–1611). From 1585 to 1590, Goltzius favored artificial forms wrought with bold tapering lines, hallmarks of Haarlem Mannerism or the so–called Golt-zius Style (Goltziusstil).15 By 1590, at only thirty–two, he had issued nearly three–quar-ters of his known graphic productions.

11Karel van Mander, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604), ed. Hessel Miedema, 6 vols. (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1994-99), I: 404-5, fol. 286v.

12On his rise to fame in Haarlem, see Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 15-17.

13For the negotiations underlying this commission, see Leeflang and Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius, 38-39; and Walter L. Strauss, ed., Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617): The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, 2 vols. (New York: Abaris Books, 1977), I: 343. For transcriptions of the original correspondences, including Goltzius’ own rejection on 29 June 1586, see Otto Hirschmann, Hendrick Goltzius, Meister der Graphik VII (Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1919), 9-11.

14On Goltzius’ stylistic development, see Bruce Davis, “Hendrick Goltzius and Printmaking: Between Renaissance and Baroque,” in Hendrick Goltzius and the Classical Tradition, ed. Glenn Harcourt (Los Angeles: Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, 1992), 20-23.

15For analysis of Goltzius’ line, see Leeflang and Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius, 82-83.

3The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, 1571 Cornelis Cort Netherlandish, 1533–before 1578 After Titian, Italian, c. 1488/90–1576Engraving, 19 9/16 x 13 7/8 in. (plate)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 2000.5.2


In the third century, a Roman prefect con-demned Saint Lawrence to be burned alive on a gridiron.16 “The martyr’s face was lumi-nous / And round it shone a glorious light,” the fourth–century poet Prudentius would later declare.17

Light is the protagonist in this nocturnal scene.18 Cornelius Cort, who is thought to have studied under Goltzius’ teacher in 1550s Haarlem, captures the iridescent flames, ashen smoke and cloudbursts found in the original Venetian altarpiece. To achieve this

remarkable tonal range, Cort adeptly manip-ulated the burin. Customarily, an engraved line begins at a point and gradually swells towards the center before again returning to a point. He accentuated this trait by apply-ing varying degrees of pressure to the burin, an innovative technique that augmented the width of the line, and in turn, the degree of light or shadow rendered.19 Here, in the sat-in–black heavens, to which the anguished Saint Lawrence turns, an intricate network of concentric lines exemplifies this technique.

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16On Saint Lawrence (d. 258), see George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (London, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), s. v. “Saint Lawrence.”

17The Orthodox Christian poet Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (b. 348) wrote a series of poems dedicated to the martyrs. On his “Hymn in Honor of the Passion of the Blessed Martyr Lawrence,” see Sr. M. Clement Eagen, ed. and trans., The Poems of Prudentius, Fathers of the Church 43 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1962), 105-28, 119, ll. 361-62.

18On this print and its nearly identical versions, see Manfred Sellink, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Cornelis Cort, ed. Huigen Leeflang (Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Publishers in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2000), IX, pt. II: 176-84, cat. nos. 126-28, copies 126-128.a-f; and Walter L. Strauss, The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1986), 52: 162, cat. no. 139-I (144).

19On Cort’s technique, commonly termed “swelling waist” (schwellende Taille), see Sellink, introduction to The New Hollstein, xxii-xxxiv, xxiv.


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4Mars Surprised with Venus, 1585 Hendrick Goltzius Dutch, 1558–1617Engraving, first of three states, 16 1/2 x 12 1/4 in. (plate)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1995.21.1


Drawn from classical mythology, this scene captures the dramatic moment when Vulcan learns of the infidelity of his wife Venus with her paramour Mars.20 Above Neptune, Mer-cury, Jupiter, Apollo and Hercules descend upon a clouded threshold to witness the ill–fated union.

A popular cautionary tale among Nether-landish artists, this adaptation ranks among Goltzius’ earliest mythologies.21 The nu-anced lines of varying widths, exemplified in the softly modeled leg of Venus, recalls

the technique first developed by Cort. The striking torso of Vulcan and the tiered com-position suggest Goltzius may have sought additional inspiration from the Dutch paint-er Anthonie Blocklandt. The plumed clouds, wrought by concentric patterns, indicate the influence of Bartholomeus Spranger. It is no wonder that the Haarlem master drew praise for his seemingly effortless ability to trans-pose and render as his own the techniques of established masters.22

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20Homer, The Odyssey, VII: 266-366; Ovid, Metamorphoses, IV:171-89; and id., Ars amatoria, V: 561-98.

21On this print, see Marjolein Leesberg, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Hendrick Goltzius, ed. Huigen Leeflang (Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Publishers in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2012), XXVIII, pt. I: 248, cat. no. 150; Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Draw-ings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 50-52, cat. no. 13; Lee Hendrix, “Conquering Illusion: Bartholomeus Spranger’s Influence in Venus and Mars Surprised by Vulcan by Hendrick Goltzius,” in Hendrick Goltzius and the Classical Tradition, ed. Glenn Harcourt (Los Angeles: Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, 1992), 66-72; Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-82), 3: 132, cat. no. 139 (43); 3 commentary: 122, cat. no. .0301.139 (43); id., ed., Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617): The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, 2 vols. (New York: Abaris Books, 1977), I: 354, cat. no. 216; and Otto Hirschmann, Hendrick Goltzius, Meister der Graphik VII (Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1919), 49, no pl. or ill. given.

22Van Mander was among the first to recognize Goltzius’ talent, noting: “. . . he has also admirably applied himself to imitate the various working methods of the best masters.” See Karel van Mander, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604), ed. Hessel Miedema, 6 vols. (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1994-99), I: 394, fol. 284r. On the influences evident in this print, see Leeflang and Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius, 51-52, fig. 13a.


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5Evangelicae historiae imagines (Illustrations of the Gospel Stories), Antverpiæ (Antwerp), Ex Officina Plantiniana, Apud Ioannem Moretum, 1607 Hieronymus NataliusSpanish, 1507–158013 31/32 x 10 3/64 x 3 27/64 in.On loan from the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library


In 1585, publisher Christopher Plantin solic-ited Goltzius to execute engravings for Je-rome Nadal’s Illustrations of the Gospel Sto-ries, a series of Jesuit meditations on the life of Christ.23 Plantin met with little success. His surviving correspondence reveals that Goltzius would only accept the commission if it took him to Rome. After a yearlong ne-gotiation, Goltzius declined, and the task was thereafter divided between four Flemish and Italian engravers.

This 1607 edition, newly titled Annotations and Meditations on the Gospels (Adnotatio-nes et meditationes in Evangelia), expands upon and rearranges the original meditations according to the liturgical calendar.24 The ac-companying illustrations, exemplified in the Burial of Christ, would have served to inspire the faithful in their contemplative reading. 25

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23On the complex and protracted negotiations, see Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 38-39; and Walter L. Strauss, ed., Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617): The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, 2 vols. (New York: Abaris Books, 1977), I: 343.

24On author and text, see Walter S. Melion, introduction to Annotations and Meditations on the Gospels, by Jerome Nadal, trans. and ed. Frederick A. Homann (Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2003-5), 1-32, esp. 4-6.

25See Hieronymus Natalius, Evangelicae historiae imagines (Antverpiæ: Ex Officina Plantiniana, Apud Ioannem Moretum, 1607), pl. 133.

6After Bartholomeus Spranger, Flemish, 1546–1611 (left) The Holy Family, 1589Hendrick Goltzius Dutch, 1558–1617 Engraving, 11 1/4 x 8 3/8 in. (plate)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1996.9.1

(right) The Holy Family, c. 1589Workshop of Hendrick Goltzius, possibly Pieter de Jode I Flemish, 1570–1634Engraving, 9 1/4 x 6 5/8 in. (23.5 x 16.83 cm.) (plate)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1996.9.2


“When I came to live in Haarlem in 1583,” Van Mander recalls, “I made [Goltzius’] ac-quaintance and showed him some drawings by Spranger, which he liked very much.”26 Goltzius was captivated by the complex de-signs of the Prague artist, whose composi-tions inspired him to reimagine his own en-graved line.

It seems Goltzius knew well the elongated proportions and lively contours of Sprang-er’s Holy Family, a design he replicates on

the left.27 The swelling proportions of each line endow the figures with a tangible vol-ume. The Virgin’s soft rounded shoulder, given shape by concentric rings of varying widths, embodies the fleshiness of Goltzius’ so–called “dough–style.”28 Closer analysis reveals how his lines now progress from fig-ure to figure without disruption, rendering remarkably fluid silhouettes.29 Goltzius’ em-boldened technique informs a workshop pro-duction of the same subject.30

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26Karel van Mander, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604), ed. Hessel Miedema, 6 vols. (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1994-99), I: 394, fol. 284r.

27On this Spranger-inspired print, see Marjolein Leesberg, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Hendrick Goltzius, ed. Huigen Leeflang (Rotter-dam: Sound & Vision Publishers in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2012), XXVIII, pt. II: 303-5, cat. no. 338; Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 82-83, fig. 42; Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-82), 3: 242, cat. no. 275 (84); 3 commentary: 304, cat. no. .0301.275 (84); id., ed., Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617): The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, 2 vols. (New York: Abaris Books, 1977), II: 494, cat. no. 281; and Otto Hirschmann, Hendrick Goltzius, Meister der Graphik VII (Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1919), 57, pl. XIV, ill. 17.

28On technique, see Leeflang and Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius, 83.

29On silhouettes, see Strauss, ed., Hendrik Goltzius, 494, cat. no. 281.

30On this variation, see Leesberg, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, XXVIII, pt. IV: 262-63, cat. no. R4; Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch, 3: 264, cat. no. 297 (90); 3 commentary: 335, cat. nos. 0301.297 (90); and Hirschmann, Hendrick Goltzius, 57-58, pl. XIV, ill. 18.


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“When Goltzius returned from Italy he had impressed

the handsome Italian paintings as firmly in his memory

as in a mirror.”31 — Karel van Mander, 1604


ITALY AND THE RETURN TO CLASSICISMWith the declining state of his health and the mounting success of his workshop, issuing a remarkable sixty–five prints in 1589, Goltzius set off for Italy in early 1590.32 After visiting Venice, Bologna and Florence, he arrived in Rome. The Eternal City left an indelible mark. Time with original works, rather than plaster models or prints, perfected his knowl-edge of classical art and the so–called “Ital-ian manner.” Perhaps he acquired prints after Federico Barocci, whose emotive and equally innovative religious compositions became a

significant source of inspiration. Regardless, his return to Haarlem in 1593 marks a turn to-wards the ordered classicism of the Old Mas-ters, a period specialists praise as Goltzius’ neo–renaissance.33

31Karel van Mander, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604), ed. Hessel Miedema, 6 vols. (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1994-99), I: 400-1, fol. 285v.

32For his expedition to Italy, see ibid., 388-95, fol. 282v-84r; and Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 17-19, 117-25.

33On this style, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617): The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, 2 vols. (New York: Abaris Books, 1977), II: 513.

7Saint Jerome, c. 1592–1607 Giuseppe ScolariItalian, active c. 1592–1607Woodcut, second of two states, 20 3/4 x 14 1/2 in. (sheet)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1986.6


Little is known of Goltzius’ stay in Venice be-yond the portrait of his friend and fellow artist Dirck de Vries.34 Representative of the Vene-tian style is Giuseppe Scolari, one of the last great woodcutters who was active between 1592 and 1607.35 Of the nine surviving prints attributed to Scolari, six depict scenes from the Passion of Christ and another two Cath-olic saints.36 Here, he portrays the Church Father Saint Jerome mid–prayer holding a Crucifix and stone for self–mortification.37

Alongside attends his customary compan-ion, a lion, whose mane demonstrates the ex-traordinary texture of Scolari’s line. Behind, the rugged cliff exhibits his use of an engrav-er’s burin to render vivid white highlights in dark velvety passages.

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34On their friendship and the resulting portraits, see Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 19; and Ger Luijten, ed., Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlandish Art, 1580-1620, exh. cat. (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; Zwolle: Waanders; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993), 396-97, cat. no. 51.

35For an introduction to this little studied artist, considered the Veronese of Venetian printmaking, see Iris Contant, “Nuove Notizie su Giuseppe Scolari,” Arte Veneta 55 (2001): 120-28; David Landau, “Printmaking in Venice and the Veneto,” The Genius of Venice, 1500-1600, ed. Jane Martineau and Charles Hope, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of the Arts; New York: H. N. Abrams, 1983), 303-54, 350-54, cat. nos. P60-63; Michelangelo Muraro and David Rosand, eds., Tiziano e la silografia veneziana del Cinquecento, exh. cat. (Vicenza: Neri Pozza Editore, s.r.l., 1976), 150-56, cat. nos. 102-12; Henri Zerner, “Giuseppe Scolari,” L’Oeil cxxi (1965): 24-29, 67, esp. 25; and Grove Art Online, s. v. “Scolari, Giuseppe,” by Feliciano Benvenuti, accessed February 25, 2015, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.

36On the statistics of his surviving prints, see Muraro and Rosand, eds., Tiziano e la silografia veneziana del Cinquecento, 150.

37On this print, see Landau, “Printmaking in Venice and the Veneto,” 351-52, P60; and Muraro and Rosand, eds., Tiziano e la silografia veneziana del Cinquecento, 153, cat. no. 105. On Saint Jerome, see Judith Couchman, The Art of Faith: A Guide to Understanding Christian Images (Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2012), s. v. “Jerome.”


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8Stigmatization of Saint Francis, 1581 Federico Barocci Italian, 1535–1612Etching, engraving and dry point, 9 x 6 in. (sheet)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 2003.15.4


Goltzius knew well the innovations of Baro-cci, a leading Counter–Reformation artist in late sixteenth–century Italy.38 The Stigma-tization of Saint Francis testifies to the raw power Barocci invested in sacred narratives.39 Set on Mount Verna, Francis kneels with eyes heavenward and arms outstretched in prayer. His miraculous receipt of the stigmata is ap-parent by his pierced hand here offered as the object of the viewer’s meditation. Dark, rhythmic lines heighten the intensity of the visionary encounter.

It is recognized that Goltzius sought inspira-tion from Barocci. Beginning in 1593, almost immediately upon his return from Italy, Golt-zius executed the Life of the Virgin, a series of six prints acclaimed as his Masterpieces (Meisterstiche).40 He chose to render each in the manner of a different Old Master. For his Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist, Golt-zius drew the playful expressions and tousled curls from prints after Barocci’s Madonna of the Cat (1577).41

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38For a recent appraisal of Barocci, see Judith W. Mann, “Innovation and Inspiration: An Introduction to Federico Barocci,” in Federico Barocci: Renaissance Master of Color and Line (St. Louis, MO: Saint Louis Art Museum; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012), 1-31.

39On this print, one of four etchings by Barocci, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1982), 34: 11, cat. no. 3 (3); and Edmund Pillsbury and Louise Richards, eds., The Graphic Art of Federico Barocci: Selected Drawings and Prints, exh. cat. (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1978), 93-101, 102, cat. no. 72.

40On this series, see Marjolein Leesberg, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Hendrick Goltzius, ed. Huigen Leeflang (Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Publishers in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2012), XXVIII, pt. I: 15-32, cat. nos. 8-13; Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 211-15, cat. nos. 75.1-6; Walter S. Melion, “Piety and Pictorial Manner in Hendrick Goltzius’s Early Life of the Virgin,” in Hendrick Goltzius and the Classical Tradition, ed. Glenn Harcourt (Los Angeles: Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, 1992), 44-51; Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-82), 3: 23-28, cat. nos. 15-17 (15), 18-20 (16); 3 commentary: 18-24, cat. nos. 0301.015-.017 (15), 0301.018-20 (16); id., ed., Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617): The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, 2 vols. (New York: Abaris Books, 1977), II: 580-87, cat. nos. 319-22; and Otto Hirschmann, Hendrick Goltzius, Meister der Graphik VII (Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1919), 72-81, pls. XX-XXV, ills. 26-31.

41On Goltzius’ emulation of Barocci, see Leeflang and Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius, 214-15, fig. 75e, cat. no. 75.6.


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9Adoration of the Magi from the Life of the Virgin or Masterpieces series, 1594 Hendrick Goltzius Dutch, 1558–1617 Engraving, 18 9/16 x 13 7/8 in. (sheet)Gift of Gertrude Weber, 2012.15.3


One of six engravings from Goltzius’ Life of the Virgin series, the Adoration of the Magi emulates an early sixteenth–century print by Lucas van Leyden. Although Goltzius chose a vertical format, he portrayed the Virgin and Child in a posture similar to Van Leyden’s precedent. Yet, the loosely rendered lines of the Virgin’s gown fail to attain the crisp graphic contours perfected by his predeces-sor. Goltzius’ use of grey ink further prohibit-ed him from achieving the broad tonal scale and silvery finish for which his Dutch rival was so celebrated.

This print also commemorates the artist’s in-genuity. Van Mander recounts how Goltzius took great pains to age the series’ Circumci-sion print, executed in the style of Dürer. Af-ter using a hot coal to efface his self-portrait and identifying initials, Goltzius smoked and creased the image before sending cop-ies to Rome, Venice and Amsterdam. Critic and connoisseur alike marveled at the super-lative quality of Dürer, which far surpassed anything the Haarlem master could achieve. “[A]fter many rumors and much claptrap,” Van Mander muses, “the print was shown and came before the eyes of these people in its entirety . . . [and] they stood (as the saying goes) with egg on their faces.” Goltzius em-ployed the same ruse for the Adoration.

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42On the series’ Adoration print, see Marjolein Leesberg, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Hendrick Goltzius, ed. Huigen Leeflang (Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Publishers in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2012), XXVIII, pt. I: 20-21, 27, cat. no. 12, 32, copies 12.a-b; Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 213-14, fig. 75d, cat. no. 75.5; Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-82), 3: 27, cat. no. 19 (16); 3 commentary: 22-23, cat. no. 0301.019 (16); id., ed., Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617): The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, 2 vols. (New York: Abaris Books, 1977), II: 582-83, cat. no. 320; and Otto Hirschmann, Hendrick Goltzius, Meister der Graphik VII (Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1919), 79-80, pl. XXIV, ill. 30.

43On his choice of ink, see Leeflang and Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius, 214. 44On this episode, see Karel van Mander, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604), ed. Hessel Miedema, 6 vols. (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1994-99), I: 396-99, fols. 284v-85r.


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10Pietà, 1596Hendrick Goltzius Dutch, 1558–1617Engraving, second of two states, 7 1/2 x 5 1/8 in. (sheet)Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1988.28


Among the final engravings created by Golt-zius is his poignant Pietà.45 Here, the an-guished Virgin grieves over the dead body of Christ. The instruments of his Passion, the distant Cross on Calvary and the Crown of Thorns in the foreground, invite the viewer to also grieve.

Goltzius drew this emotive composition from the Old Masters. The sinuous curves of Christ evoke the example of Michelange-lo, whose Pietà Goltzius must have studied in Rome’s Basilica of Saint Peter.46 The print also recalls Dürer’s Madonnas. Goltzius’ glossy night sky, resplendent haloes and pla-nar folds of the Madonna’s gown are espe-cially redolent of a 1519 precedent.47 This in-ventive synthesis, specialists agree, deserves the praise of Van Mander who proclaimed: “This piece cannot be improved upon in de-sign and execution.”48

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45On this print, see Marjolein Leesberg, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Hendrick Goltzius, ed. Huigen Leeflang (Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Publishers in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2012), XXVIII, pt. I: 74-77, cat. no. 31, copies 31.a.II/c.II; Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 209, 226-27, cat. no. 81; Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-82), 3: 48, cat. no. 41 (23); 3 commentary: 49, cat. no. 0301.041 (23); id., ed., Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617): The Complete Engravings and Woodcuts, 2 vols. (New York: Abaris Books, 1977), II: 608-9, cat. no. 331; and Otto Hirschmann, Hendrick Goltzius, Meister der Graphik VII (Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1919), 81-82, pl. XXVI, ill. 33.

46On its tie to Michelangelo’s Pietà, see Leeflang and Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius, 209, 226-27; and Strauss, ed., Hendrik Goltzius, 608.

47On the influence of Dürer’s Madonnas, see Leeflang and Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius, 226-27. On Dürer’s engraved examples, including the Madonna Nursing, see Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980-81), 10 commentary: 75-106, cat. nos. 1001.029 (50)-.044 (62), esp. 87, cat. no .036 (55).

48Karel van Mander, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604), ed. Hessel Miedema, 6 vols. (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1994-99), I: 398, fol. 285r.


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“‘Honor above Gold’”49 — Karel van Mander, 1604


HIS LEGACYGoltzius’ motto, as Van Mander recounts, is fitting for one who so tirelessly sought to secure his legacy. Over the course of a four–decade career, the artist executed countless portrait engravings, acquiring a vast clien-tele. In addition to William Prince of Or-ange, noblemen, merchants, soldiers as well as established physicians commissioned the Haarlem master. His works on paper were also well known to King Philip II of Spain, Emperor Rudolf II of Prague and the Fugger banking family in Augsburg, who numbered among his avid collectors.50

Goltzius died in 1617. As one of the last en-gravers to draw with the skill of a painter, he inspired many who came after including Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, widely re-garded as the preeminent artist of Holland’s Golden Age.51

49Karel van Mander, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603-1604), ed. Hessel Miedema, 6 vols. (Doornspijk: Davaco, 1994-99), I: 402-3, fol. 286r.

50For an overview of Goltzius’ connoisseurs and patrons, see Huigen Leeflang and Ger Luijten, eds., Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exh. cat. (Zwolle: Waanders; Amster-dam: Rijksmuseum; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Toledo, OH: The Toledo Museum of Art, 2003), 19 for his wealthy collectors; 16-17 and 56-79 for his portrait engravings, esp. 60, fig. 34 for the likeness of an admiral, 62, fig. 39 for a physician, 65, cat. no. 17 for a merchant and 67, cat. no. 18 for William Prince of Orange.

51On his painter-engraver legacy, see A. Hyatt Mayor, Prints & People. A Social History of Printed Pictures (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1971), n. p., figs. 420-21.

11Pride (Superbia), 1592–1593 Jacob MathamDutch, 1571–1631 After Hendrick Goltzius, Dutch, 1558–1617Engraving, 12 3/4 x 6 1/2 in. (sheet) Museum Purchase with Curriculum Support Funds, 1988.15.a


When Goltzius turned to painting in 1600, his stepson and pupil Jacob Matham as-sumed responsibility for the Haarlem work-shop.52 Surviving prints confirm the dili-gent training and inherent gift of Goltzius’ protégé. Matham’s Pride, executed after his tutor, depicts one of the seven deadly sins.53 Here a statuesque woman upholds a mirror, the traditional symbol of vanity. Her unde-terred gaze and unblemished beauty person-ify pride, which according to Pope Gregory the Great leads to the other six vices. 54 The

meticulous swell of Matham’s line grant di-mension to her gown, while thin concentric rings in the arch appear so fine near her face that they reflect the light of the mirror. Al-though only one of roughly 400 extant en-gravings produced by Matham, his sensitive technique ensured the immediate legacy of his family workshop.55

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52On Matham’s life and legacy, see Léna Widerkehr, comp., introduction to The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Jacob Matham, ed. Huigen Leeflang (Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Publishers in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2007), XXI, pt. I: xxiv-lxviii.

53On Matham’s Vices series, to which this print belongs, and its relation to Goltzius’ work, see ibid., xxix. On the Pride engraving, see Widerkehr, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, XXI, pt. II: 26, 30-31, cat. no. 150; and Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980), 4: 121, cat. no. 132 (165).

54Angela Tilby, The Seven Deadly Sins: Their origin in the spiritual teaching of Evagrius the Hermit (London: SPCK, 2009), ch. 2, n. pp. given.

55For the statistics of his surviving works, see James Clifton, ed., A Portrait of the Artist, 1525-1825: Prints from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, exh. cat. (Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, 2005), 121-23, cat. no. 35.


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12Landscape with Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, c. 1600–1629 Simon Wynhoutsz. FrisiusFlemish, c. 1570–1628 Etching, first state, 7 x 9 in. (plate)Gift of Gertrude Weber, 1995.22.8


Frisius is often recognized for executing two small landscapes after Goltzius, prints that arguably mark the beginning of seven-teenth–century Dutch landscape etching.56 Unlike engraving, the intaglio process of etching relies on an acid bath to “bite” or incise the design onto the metal plate.57 The result of this process, favored for render-ing landscapes, is preserved in this bucol-ic scene.58 In the immediate foreground, Frisius renders Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Both the lyrical tree and rising

city fortress diminish the narrative, discern-able only by the figure of Christ who extends his hand in blessing (Mk. 11:9). The notice-ably delicate and at times trembling lines of the fissured stone and windswept foliage epitomize Frisius’ aesthetic. “[H]is etchings, though usually very slight,” one eighteenth–century critic conceded, “are nevertheless free, broad and masterly.”59

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56On Frisius’ life and legacy, see Nadine M. Orenstein, comp., introduction to The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Simon Frisius, ed. Huigen Leeflang (Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Publishers in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2008), XXII, pt. I: xvii-xxvii, and for his ties to Goltzius esp. xvii. On the landscape prints after Goltzius, see also Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1980), 3: 379-80, cat. nos. 1-2 (120).

57For the intaglio process of etching, see Felix Brunner, A Handbook of Graphic Reproduction Processes, 3rd ed. (Switzerland: Arthur Niggli Teufen, 1968), 115-19.

58On this print, one of eight catalogued under the uniform title Landscapes with scenes from the Life of Christ, see Orenstein, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, XXII, pt. I: 9, 13, cat. no. 10.I.

59Joseph Strutt, A Biographical Dictionary Containing an Historical Account of all the Engravers, 2 vols. (London, 1785), 311, quoted in Orenstein, comp., introduction to The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, xxii, n. 42.


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13The Raising of Lazarus, 1631–1632 Rembrandt Harmensz. van RijnDutch, 1606–1669Etching with engraving, sixth state or later, 14 11/16 x 10 7/16 in. (plate)Gift of John Barton Payne, 1920.2.64


Rembrandt was a fervent collector. In addi-tion to arms, costumes and a host of natural curiosities, he accumulated a vast number of paintings and graphic works. Among his en-gravings were prints by Hendrick Goltzius, Lucas van Leyden and the Little Masters, as well as an edition of Van Mander’s Book of Painters.60

Although Rembrandt drew inspiration from his collection, he, like Goltzius, made past in-ventions his own. This print executed only a few years after his first experiment with etch-ing, exhibits the intensity indicative of this Dutch master.61 Here Christ, with features obscured and hand raised, has just sum-moned Lazarus from the grave (Jn. 11:1–44). Light wrought by quaking lines and delicate stippling endows the scene with a pulsating energy. Rembrandt’s intuitive talent for ren-dering radiance conveys, in the words of one specialist, “a miraculous power.”62

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60On Rembrandt’s vast collections, see Seymour Slive, Dutch Painting 1600-1800 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), 81.

61On Rembrandt’s intuitive talent as an etcher, see ibid., 58. On The Raising of Lazarus, see Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Wood-cuts, 1450-1700: Rembrandt, ed. Ger Luijten (Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Publishers in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2013), vol. 29, pt. I, text I: 177-80, cat. no. 113; vol. 29, pt. III, plates I: 195-203, cat. nos. 113.I-IX; Erik Hinterding, Ger Luijten and Martin Royalton-Kisch, eds., Rembrandt the Printmaker, exh. cat. (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Pub., 2000), 118-22, cat. no. 17; and John T. Spike, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1993), 50: 59, cat. no. 73-I [III].

62Slive, Dutch Painting 1600-1800, 57.


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14Death of the Virgin, 1639 Rembrandt Harmensz. van RijnDutch, 1606–1669Etching and drypoint, second of three states, 16 1/4 x 12 3/8 in. (sheet)Museum Purchase, 1986.24


Inspired by apocryphal accounts, Rembrandt here stages the death of the Virgin.63 Above an angel attended by winged putti materi-alizes, while below the Apostles accompany bereaved figures at her bedside. A man in the foreground turns from his manuscript as if to hear the physician’s expected pronounce-ment. From clouded mist to manuscript, Rembrandt evokes an extraordinary range of textures. The velvety passages in the fore-ground, achieved by the abrasive effects of burnishing heighten the dramatic intensity.

Despite his precocious talent, Rembrandt still looked to Dürer. It is known that he owned nine sets of Dürer’s Death of the Virgin se-ries, whose version bears loose resemblance to Rembrandt’s adaptation.64 The pioneering efforts of his predecessors, exemplified by Dürer and Goltzius, elevated the expressive possibilities of the print. Van Mander was right: The fame of Goltzius did live on as his works continue to rank among the finest in the history of graphic arts.

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63Although debated, Rembrandt’s portrayal seems to incorporate distinct moments from Jacobus de Voragine’s fourteenth-century hagiography the Golden Legend (Legenda aurea). See Erik Hinterd-ing and Jaco Rutgers, comp., The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: Rembrandt, ed. Ger Luijten (Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Publishers in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2013), vol. 29, pt. II, text II: 39-41, cat. no. 173; vol. 29, pt. IV, plates II: 93-97, cat. nos. 173.I-V; Julia Lloyd Williams, Rembrandt’s Women (Munich, London and New York: Prestel, 2001), 165, cat. no. 83; and Erik Hinterding, Ger Luijten and Martin Royalton-Kisch, eds., Rembrandt the Printmaker, exh. cat. (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Pub., 2000), 162-64, cat. no. 32; and John T. Spike, ed., The Illustrated Bartsch (New York: Abaris Books, 1993), 50: 85, cat. no. 99-I.

64Rembrandt reportedly bought all of the sets at the 1638 sale of Gommer Spranger’s collection. See Walter L. Strauss and Marjon van der Meulen, eds., The Rembrandt Documents (New York: Abaris Books, 1979), 1638/2, quoted in Williams, Rembrandt’s Women, 165.


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