Artwork Page for Apollo

Details / Information for Apollo

Apollo

1588

Hendrick Goltzius

(Dutch, 1558–1617)
Culture
Netherlands, 16th century
Medium
engraving
Support
Blued white laid paper
Measurements
Platemark: 34.9 x 26.7 cm (13 3/4 x 10 1/2 in.); Sheet: 35.3 x 27.1 cm (13 7/8 x 10 11/16 in.)
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection 1969.48
Catalogue raisonné
Hollstein 131 (VIII)
State
I/I
Public Domain
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Location
101A Prints & Drawings
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Print

Description

In the Netherlands, Hendrick Goltzius radically altered the engraver’s formulas for producing shape, volume, and tone. Building on Cornelis Cort’s and Agostino Carracci’s formulas, he used swelled, crossed lines that end at the figure’s outline. He interspersed the diamond shapes on Apollo’s body with dots to convey the transition from dark to light—effective for portraying the Sun God’s exaggerated musculature, a hallmark of Goltzius’s work. The S curve, a mark used by Albrecht Dürer, is now swelled to follow the complicated, swirling volume of clouds.
An oval print in black ink on cream paper depicts Apollo, a muscular, nude man with light skin tone, standing on a cloud. Facing left, he raises a staff. Rays of light and circular Latin text frame his radiant hair. A dark cloak billows behind him. In the background, a small figure drives a chariot pulled by four horses through clouds. Below his feet, a crescent moon rests upon a cloud.

Apollo

1588

Hendrick Goltzius

(Dutch, 1558–1617)
Netherlands, 16th century

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