Tantalus,

1588

During his lifetime, Goltzius became celebrated throughout Europe as an extraordinary imitative artist who could observe, copy, and then surpass the works of both his forebears and his contemporaries. Made after designs by his compatriot Cornelisz. van Haarlem, this suite of engravings vividly chronicles the fate of four mythological characters who dared to challenge the gods. Two of the roundels depict darker scenes: the fiery descents of Tantalus, who killed his own son to feed the gods, and of Ixion, who ill-advisedly sought to seduce Zeus’s wife Juno. These tumbling figures balance the brighter images of Icarus and Phaeton: having flown too close to the sun, they hurtle downward, toward minute landscapes. Depicting the same muscular nude from different angles, the four prints collectively form a single sculpture in the round, demonstrating Goltzius’s masterful evocation of three-dimensionality through his virtuoso engraving technique.