GOLTZIUS Hendrick

(Muhlbracht 1558 – Haarlem 1617)

Dutch painter, engraver and draftsman, born in a village near Brüggen, a German town close to the Dutch border. He was the son of Jan Goltz, a draftsman and stained glass painter, who Latinized his name to ‘Goltzius’. After acquiring the first paternal teachings in the art of drawing, he continued his apprenticeship at the workshop of Dutch engraver Dirk Coornhert, exiled to Germany for religious reasons.
When Coornhert returned to Holland in 1577, young Goltzius followed him to Haarlem, where he founded, with other painters and engravers, the Haarlem Academy, with the aim of allowing young Dutch artists to compete with Italian masters. His work was strongly influenced by Bartholomaeus Spranger’s manierist taste, of whom he became the most prolific interpreter.

Although he had a right hand malformation because of an accident occurred when he was still a child, he soon became famous and appreciated for his skill as an engraver often touching technical virtuosity.
Marrying Margaretha Jansdr, a rich widow with a son, Hendrick became the stepfather of Jacob Matham, his future pupil and collaborator in the art of engraving, who in turn produced extraordinary prints, many of which were derived from paternal subjects.
In 1590 he made a trip to Italy that allowed him to know and study the classic masterpieces of Italian artists and also to admire Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.
At the beginning of the new century, the artist turned to painting, a new technique he had studied but never practiced. He demonstrated an extraordinary talent in this scope too. His subjects, mostly male or female nudes, are pervaded by a strong sensuality, obtained thanks to a wise use of lights and chiaroscuro.
In addition to reproduction works by Dürer, Luca di Leyda, Raffaello, Parmigianino, his production of prints includes subjects of his own invention.

All his work on engraving was crucial to the spread of Italian mannerism in the northern European countries. He died at 59 years old at Haarlem at the top of his artistic career.