Hendrick GoltziusHolland, 1558–1617Hercules Killing Cacus
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To make a chiaroscuro woodcut, an artist uses a separate woodblock for printing each different color of ink. Often, as was the case for both of these prints, the image was rendered primarily in a line block, usually in black. The additional colors—together with the color of the paper itself—provide more definition to the forms and more dramatic light effects.
The virtuoso graphic artist Hendrick Goltzius used the chiaroscuro woodcut technique to great effect in his depiction of Hercules completing the 10th of his 12 labors: the capture of the cattle of Geryon. To accomplish this feat, he had to vanquish the giant Cacus. Goltzius shows the moment just before Hercules violently clubs the giant, which is made especially dramatic by the vivid conjunction of yellow and green.
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Although Goltzius's advances in line engraving found many followers, few artists pursued his equally original exploration of chiaroscuro woodcuts printed from one line block and multiple tone blocks. The largest, and one of the earliest of the chiaroscuro woodcuts from Goltzius's workshop, this dramatic print is also the only one to have a date cut into the block. Here Hercules slays Cacus, a cattle thief, in his cave in the Aventine hills.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Oplysninger
- Inventarnummer
- 1930.795
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Kilder
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Billede: Art Institute of Chicago — CC0
Imens i livet hos Hendrick Goltzius
Hele livet1579–1587
Pupil: Jan Saenredam
late 1580s
Depression and consumption
From the late 1580s he suffered from depression and consumption; his family life was unhappy.
1585–1587
Pupil: Jacob de Gheyn II
1587
Founding of the Haarlem Academy
Together with Cornelis van Haarlem and Karel van Mander he founded an academy of art in Haarlem, later known as the Haarlem Mannerist Academy (some sources give 1583 or 1600). There, for the first time in the Netherlands, systematic study of anatomy and drawing from the nude model were introduced.
1590
Departure for Italy
He fled from his wife and, despite his illnesses, set out for Italy — via Hamburg and Munich to Venice, Bologna and Florence. Part of the way he traveled on foot, passing himself off as a commoner, "partly out of a love of mystification."
