Pietà
Artist/Culture
Hendrick Goltzius
(Dutch, 1558–1617)
Date1596
Mediumengraving on cream laid paper
Dimensions18.1 x 13 cm (7 1/8 x 5 1/8 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineEliza S. Paine Fund
Terms
Object number1976.1
Label TextIn this consciously virtuoso performance, Goltzius paid homage to Albrecht Dürer, the greatest northern printmaker of the foregoing century. He combined the subject of Michelangelo’s Pietà sculpture—that he had seen at the Vatican—with an adaptation of God the Father holding the Dead Christ from Dürer’s famous woodcut Sea of Grace. In its scale and crisp burin technique, the print resembles Dürer, already considered to have been the greatest northern printmaker. Even Goltzius’s prominent monogram and date were adapted from Dürer’s famous engravings.ProvenanceChristopher Mendez, LondonOn View
Not on view
