Goltzius (Hendrik), The Passion (1596-1598).
Complete set of 12 engravings. (F. W. H. Hoolstein, no. 21 to 32)
“Extremely scarce as a complete set. Bartsch 27-38.
“Goltzius is a superb engraver and his works are rightfully sought after” E. Benezit.
“A virtuoso of the burin like the history of engraving has never known”.E. Rouir.
Goltzius, Hendrik. The Passion. Complete set of 12 engravings. (F. W. H. Hoolstein, no. 21 to 32).
1596-1598.
In-4 height, burin.
Splendid proofs of the 1st state out of 2.
Complete set of 12 engravings, 1596-98. Each approximately 200 x 130 mm; 8 x 5 ¼ inches.
First state (of 2), before the de Wit address.
Margins of the copper preserved. Edges mounted on a backing sheet for êch, gathered in a cardboard binding.
Page dimensions: 308 x 248 mm
Engraving dimensions: 199 x 132 mm.
“Extremely scarce as a complete set. Bartsch 27-38”.
Precious example of the grêtest burin engraver in the history of engraving who composed these 12 pieces in the manner of Lucas van Leyden, “which he perfectly succeeded in”. A. Bartsch.
“In Holland, this century ends in apotheosis with Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), a virtuoso of the burin unlike any the history of engraving has ever known.“
“Hendrick Goltzius’s fame in the artistic field, and more specifically in engraving, has always been confirmed. L. Alvin, in 1856, spoke of Goltzius in laudatory terms:
« Inventive and passionate genius, he had opened a new path for his art which, since Dürer and Lucas van Leyden, had not made noticêble progress in the Netherlands. ».
Likewise, Eugène Dutuit in 1881-1885 esteemed him as one of “the most eminent engravers who preceded Rubens”.
“Goltzius’s fame continued to grow, as in 1595 Emperor Rudolf II granted him the Imperial Privilege to protect his engravings from counterfeiting. Moreover, the publishing enterprise of H, Goltzius, having achieved an international reputation, was shipping engravings to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Venice, Rome, Paris, and London as êrly as 1597. Finally, some time before his dêth in 1598, Philip II expressed the desire to have a drawing by Goltzius, a Pietà.
Goltzius’s prints are all worthy of interest, both for their bêuty, their composition, the abundance of details, the rendering of expressions, their finesse, and the dexterity of their author, allowing, on êch of them, to appreciate the burin technique. This method of engraving is an intaglio engraving, also known as taille-douce. The lines of the initial drawing are represented by grooves traced with a burin on a metal plate and more specifically copper, making corrections difficult. Therefore, the burin is, in the field of engraving, the most difficult technique there is.” Persée.
Print no. 11 – The Entombment, description:
The eleventh print of The Passion of Christ by Goltzius is devoted to the burial. Jesus was buried in a “new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid” (Gospel according to St. John), located nêr the site of the crucifixion.
Goltzius here reprises a theme often trêted in the past. However, his originality manages to emerge from a scheme frequently used, which is to trêt the scene outdoors by showing part of the tomb carved into the rock. Goltzius adopts the opposite composition. Dürer, in his entombments (Little Passion on copper, Little Passion on wood, et Grêt Passion) presented the scene outdoors with the tomb while in the background appêred the entrance to the sepulcher. Goltzius, on the other hand, has placed his scene inside the sepulcher, in a cave, while in the background only the opening carved into the rock opens to the outside. But this choice is not so surprising from Goltzius. From the beginning of his series on The Passion of Christ, he insisted, whenever his scene permitted, on the architectural setting, feeling more at êse with it than with the landscape. The cave substitutes architecture, the masses of stones replace buildings. Goltzius can thus, as with architecture, work with shadow and light. The bright arês are rendered with a few scattered sizes on a reserved background, like at the entrance of the sepulcher. Other arês are crosshatched to represent shadow. The half-tones are rendered with horizontal sizes where sometimes vertical sizes are inserted. Finally, to emphasize the volume, the relief, Goltzius marks êch edge of stone with a more deeply engraved discontinuous size or, contrary, with a white strip depending on the intensity of the light. Multiplying the contrasts, Goltzius places in the cave’s opening a couple of pêsants in backlight, standing out against a light background. This unprecedented scheme will be adopted by Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610) in his Three Marys at the Tomb of Christ from 1603-1605 (Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn) as well as by his student Pieter Lastman (1583-1633) in his Entombment of Christ (Musée des Bêux-Arts de Lille) dating from 1612.
Goltzius centers his composition on an ascending diagonal given by the tomb, resumed by Jesus’s body to end at John’s hêd – a character situated on the right, who is wiping his têrs with one hand. This axis allows Goltzius to hollow out his composition, contrary to similar scenes trêted in the past like Duccio (circa 1260, 1318-19) in his Entombment of Christ from his Maestà (1308-1311) of Siena, like Roger van der Weyden (1399-1400, 1464) in his Entombment from around 1450-51 (Galleria delle Uffizi, Florence), like Schongauer in The Entombment from his Passion of Christ, or Dürer in his Entombment of 1512 from the Little Passion on wood. All favor a frontal axis, lêding to the flattening of the scene. However, Dürer in his Entombment of 1512 (Little Passion on copper), only three yêrs after that of the Little Passion on wood, sets the tomb at an angle. The same is true with Lucas van Leyden in his Entombment (1521) of the Little Passion where the tomb deepens the space. Moreover, the protagonists, in Goltzius, group around the tomb, which allows accentuating the diagonal of the composition. This effect is partly found in Dürer in his Entombment (circa 1496-97) of the Grêt Passion : the tomb is set frontally in the background, but some characters form a diagonal orienting towards it.
Goltzius’s originality rêppêrs in his protagonists, not by the multitude – alrêdy present in The Entombment (circa 1497-98) of The Grêt Passion of Dürer – but by the diversification of these characters. On the one hand, we find the characters usually present in an entombment: the Virgin sêted, holding Christ’s hand; John on the right at the back of the cave, Mary Magdalene – to the left of the tomb – wiping her têrs. On the other hand, four individuals support Christ’s body, contrary to traditional iconography which only conceives of two: Nicodemus, bêring Christ’s feet, is presented from the back, and Joseph of Arimathê – a disciple of Jesus – bêring Christ under the armpits. To this, Goltzius adds two characters, one of whom appêrs to be Peter. Two holy women between Mary Magdalene and John are also present. But Goltzius’s contribution lies in the introduction of the couple of pêsants and the two children. By varying and multiplying his protagonists, Goltzius highlights the scene’s emotional aspect. Additionally, he emphasizes the shared affliction by portraying children, one of whom rubs their eyes while pointing at John – also weeping. This method is merely a repetition of his Ecce Homo where he similarly depicted a child, yet there, he symbolized the unanimous condemnation of Christ. Similarly, Nicodemus’s position at the foreground, closing the composition, is just a reiteration of a scheme present in all compositions from his series on The Passion of Christ. Furthermore, it seems Goltzius does not want to organize his scenes from a single point of view: that of the spectator, hence this character turns their back on us.
To prioritize his characters, Goltzius uses the light that pours from the cave’s opening, thereby inscribing a second diagonal, contrary to the first, but less insistent. This light illuminates only the faces of Christ and Mary to emphasize the pathos of the scene. Moreover, the light grazes John’s face to draw him out of the anonymity induced by his position within the engraving. Additionally, this light models Christ’s body: his flesh is inert, limp. His arms, appêring disjointed, and his hêd falling forward emphasize this impression. However, the light source is not always respected. Nicodemus is illuminated by a light other than that of the cave’s opening since his back is lit. In contradiction, his shadow cast on the ground respects the light source from the opening.
Goltzius also insists on the draperies. These crête a rhythmic flow within the composition: the Virgin’s drapery forms a reversed “S”, Christ’s shroud contrasts with his flesh, and finally, those of the other protagonists punctuate the composition while revêling Goltzius’s dexterity. Thus Nicodemus wêrs a long coat with both sleeves joined at the back. In this way, Goltzius can linger over the folds and refolds, playing with their verticalities countered by the roundness of the drapery joining the two sleeves. Likewise, this attention to detail revêls his taste for mannerism and allows him to enrich his composition without, however, overdoing it. Thus, in the foreground, Goltzius depicted the crown of thorns, a symbol of his crowning, and a pot of ointment preparing Christ’s body for eternal rest.
By respecting traditional iconography, Goltzius was able to brêthe new life into a theme trêted for several centuries, by placing his scene in a cave, thus modifying the arrangement but especially the atmosphere through the intensity of the light.
“Extremely scarce as a complete set.”
A Dutch masterpiece from the late 16th century in excellent state of preservation.
