↗France, late 19th century-early 20th century · c. 1915–26
Water Lilies (Agapanthus)
Claude Monet
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image licence: CC0 · Museum record & image source ↗
Netherlands, 16th century · 1592
The Farnesian Hercules
- Date
- 1592
- Medium
- engraving
- Dimensions
- Platemark: 40.4 x 29.4 cm (15 7/8 x 11 9/16 in.); Sheet: 42.5 x 30.2 cm (16 3/4 x 11 7/8 in.)
- Country / context
- Netherlands
- Movement / tradition
- European and American art
- Collection
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Attribution / role
- Museum attribution
- Pathway
- European and American art ↗
FROM THE MUSEUM
Hendrick Goltzius was one of many late Renaissance artists who felt compelled to travel to Italy as part of his artistic training. He went with one purpose—to study antique sculpture. Goltzius made drawings on-site and then made engravings after his designs once he returned to Haarlem in 1591. He portrayed the Farnese Hercules from a low viewpoint to capture the awesome experience of first encountering the famous monument. Goltzius showed the sculpture from behind and in shadow, emphasizing its glowing highlights. The print includes two observers, who were assumed by contemporary Dutch commentators to be a self-portrait of Goltzius with his stepson, Jacob Matham, who was also an engraver.
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0Place in the artist’s career
Compare the early apostle series, the 1592 Hercules engraving and the landscape woodcut around 1600. Engraved swelling lines model bodies through controlled incisions; a relief woodcut establishes shapes through a different relation of cut and uncut areas. Monochrome can imply muscular volume or landscape depth without painted local colour.
The artist’s practice
Artist-wide context; individual works may differ.
Media and surface
Engraving incises lines into a plate; woodcut prints the parts left in relief.
Marks and structure
Swelling and tapering lines model muscular bodies; relief cuts simplify landscape into graphic shapes.
Palette and light
Monochrome brightness comes from the spacing and density of printed marks, not painted highlights.
A MOMENT TO LOOK
Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?
Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.
