Hendrick GoltziusDutch, 1558–1617Hercules Defeating Cacus
Can I see it?
Unknown
Where is “Hercules Defeating Cacus” now? Collection: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Unknown.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Colour woodcuts printed from three separate blocks are mainly known from Italy. Goltzius, who worked in Haarlem, was one of the few artists to use the technique in the Netherlands. He printed his woodcuts in atmospheric grey tones. These prints are extremely rare. Later impressions, printed in the Amsterdam workshop of Willem Jansz Blaeu, are more colourful but far less subtle.
Rijksmuseum
Details
- Accession number
- RP-P-2013-42-1
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Rijksmuseum
- Image: Rijksmuseum — public domain
In the life of Hendrick Goltzius
The whole life1579–1587
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."
