Apollo
Medium
Engraving in black ink on off-white laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 35 × 26.3 cm (13 13/16 × 10 3/8 in.); Sheet: 36 × 26.4 cm (14 3/16 × 10 7/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
214015
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Hendrick Goltzius was at the height of his fame as a printmaker and publisher when he engraved this dramatic oval Apollo in 1588. His Dutch Mannerist style imbues the composition with a sinuous energy; as the sun god strides forward, his hair aflame, he nearly intrudes into the viewer’s space. The figure’s exaggerated anatomy and pose demonstrates Goltzius’s ongoing interests in mythology and antique sculpture. The Apollo fittingly pairs with Goltzius’s 1592 Apollo Belvedere. Goltzius approached...
About the Artist
Hendrick Goltzius · 1558–1617
Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) was the most celebrated engraver of the Northern Renaissance and a pivotal figure in Dutch Mannerism. Born near the German-Dutch border, Goltzius transformed printmaking into a virtuoso art form through his revolutionary 'swelling line' technique, where the burin was manipulated to create lines of varying thickness that produced unprecedented tonal effects and three-d...