Interpretation
During his lifetime, Goltzius became celebrated throughout Europe as an extraordinary imitative painter, draftsman, and printmaker, who could observe, copy, and then surpass the works of earlier masters, including Dürer. Goltzius’s Passion series of 1596–98 includes several episodes, Betrayal of Christ among them, which clearly derive inspiration from the composition and clarity of the earlier artist’s engraved versions. In this theatrical interpretation, Goltzius extended the landscape in the background and amplified the nocturnal effect by adding twinkling stars to the sky as well as a large lantern held directly over Christ’s head.
Information
- Title
- The Betrayal of Christ
- Object Number
- x1934-371 c
- Medium
- Engraving
- Dates
- 1598
- Dimensions
- plate: 20 × 13.2 cm (7 7/8 × 5 3/16 in.) sheet: 20.6 × 13.2 cm (8 1/8 × 5 3/16 in.)
- Catalog Raisonné
- Bartsch 29; Hollstein 23; New Hollstein 19 copy a; Strauss 355
- Credit Line
- Bequest of Junius S. Morgan, Class of 1888
- Place made
- Europe, Netherlands
- Inscriptions
- Dated and artist initials in plate, lower right: 98 / HG Numbered in plate, lower left: 3
- Type
- Materials
- Techniques
- Walter L. Strauss, ed., Hendrik Goltzius, 1558-1617: the complete engravings and woodcuts (New York: Abaris Books, 1977-)., no. 355
- Otto Hirschmann and E. W. Moes, Hendrik Goltzius, Verzeichnis des graphischen Werks (Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1976)., no. 23
- Marjolein Leesberg, "Hendrick Goltzius," New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, 1450-1700 (Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel: Sound & Vision Publishers, in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2012)., no. 19, pp. 48–49 (illus.)
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