|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Presentation of a drawing by Hendrick Goltzius, Bacchus, Venus and Ceres On 15 March 2005 a work of art entitled Bacchus, Venus and Ceres by Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) was presented to the public. Hendrick Goltzius is rightly considered one of Holland's most important artists and one of the greatest masters in the history of European prints. His work exerted considerable influence on his contemporaries and became a keystone of the 'golden age' of Dutch art. The monumental goose quill pen drawing on a primed canvas entitled Bacchus, Venus and Ceres is, possibly, the most famous, and in any case the most amazing and unusual work of the master. The canvas has been dated ‘1606' by the artist himself (lower left, on the lid of Amour's quiver). However, Goltzius worked on it over several years, as we know from Karel van Mander's Book of Artists published in 1604. Van Mander mentions this drawing in his large chapter devoted to Goltzius's biography. Describing it as unfinished and kept in the artist's atelier, Van Mander emphasized that it held the promise of becoming Goltzius's greatest masterpiece. Goltzius began working on this composition soon after he was forced to abandon engravings. The work was evidently intended to be a special monument to the unexcelled graphic mastery of its author. Using only the art of the line, Goltzius creates a highly complex composition which includes an endless multitude of the most diverse pictorial motifs. The subject which the artist has chosen is an allegory which has various interpretations and is not entirely deciphered: the depiction of the alliance of three Olympian gods, Bacchus, Venus and Ceres. This is an illustration of the theme "without Bacchus and Ceres, Venus would freeze," which was popular in 16th and 17th century art. At its basis lay a citation from the ancient Roman author Terentius. Golitzius has included a self-portrait in the composition. The artist is shown holding engraving chisels in his arms, evidently comparing their sharpness with that of Amour's arrows. He is letting the viewer know that his cutting tools have no targets which they cannot reach. Goltzius' right hand hangs down and is enveloped in smoke from a fire burning on an altar. This is a hint at the injury which forced him to give up engraving. His left hand, which we assume he used to do the drawing, is extended forward to the viewer. The first owner and, most likely, the person who commissioned this unique work was the celebrated patron of the arts, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Rudolf II. In the course of the Thirty Year's War, the canvas was taken by the Swedes as a military trophy and entered the collection of Queen Kristina of Sweden, who, in 1648, gave it as a diplomatic present to the prime minister of France, the passionate art collector Cardinal Mazarin. The drawing remained in Paris and later entered the Crozat collection. As part of that collection, it was acquired in 1772 by Empress Catherine the Great for the Hermitage. From the end of the 18th century until 1917, Goltzius's canvas was exhibited in the Museum of the Academy of Arts, and after the Revolution it returned to the Hermitage. Now, after an interval of nearly 90 years, the State Hermitage is returning to public viewing this masterpiece, which, without a doubt, is one of the museum's greatest treasures. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Mr. Niko Kobelenz of The Netherlands for donating to the Hermitage an especially prepared frame for the Goltzius canvas which is an exact copy of one of the original, still existing Haarlem frames from the beginning of the 17th century. ... The outstanding Dutch engraver, draughtsman and painter Hendrick Goltzius was born in 1558 in the small Lower Rhine town of Muhlbrecht into the family of a painter on glass. He studied under the engraver and print-maker Dirck Coornhert. In 1576 Goltzius moved to Haarlem, where he became a member of the local guild of St Luke and established his own engraving atelier. He worked to orders commissioned by the Antwerp publishers of reproduction prints based on the compositions of Dutch artists. Goltzius' acquaintance with drawings by the court artist of Emperor Rudolf II, Bartholomeus Spranger, was a turning point in his artistic development. Under Spranger's influence, Goltzius developed his own artistic style in the 1580's based on the artistic principles of international Mannerism. In the second half of the 1580's and during the 1590's, he created etchings on copper plate of great technical virtuosity which mark one of the high points in the history of European graphic art. At this time Goltzius enjoyed very wide international renown and during 1590-1591 he traveled to Italy, where he copied monuments from Antiquity and Roman frescoes which he later published in the form of a series of engravings. In the mid-1590's his art took a gradual stylistic turn in the direction of Classicism. At this time he began to make large, carefully finished pen drawings on parchment using a calligraphic technique which imitated the manner of cut engravings. Around 1600 the partial paralysis of his right hand compelled Goltzius to give up engraving and he returned to painting. Two of his later painted works, The Baptism and Adam and Eve are on permanent display in the State Hermitage. |
|
|||||
|
Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
