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Image

Hendrick Goltzius

Cliff on a Seashore

Description

Maker

Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558-1617)

Title

Cliff on a Seashore
from the series "Four Small Landscapes"

Year

1597-1600

Medium

  • Chiaroscuro woodcuts from three blocks in light green,
  • dark green,
  • and black

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Chiaroscuro woodcuts from three blocks in light green,
  • dark green,
  • and black

Materials

chiaroscuro woodcut

Supports

  • Light weight cream laid paper

Dimensions

Plate/Image: 11.4 x 14.4 cm (4 1/2 x 5 11/16 inches)

Identification

State

2nd of 2

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Henry D. Sharpe

Object Number

50.154

Type

  • Prints

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

A Matter of Tone
Chiaroscuro Woodblock Prints, 1520-1800
Jul 16, 2004 – Oct 31, 2004

Label copy

Hendrik Goltzius made his name as an engraver and started designing chiaroscuro prints around 1588. At this time he was increasingly interested in tonal effects, often drawing with brush and wash, pen and ink on colored papers and then adding white highlights. Over the next 15 years he produced at least 18 chiaroscuro prints.

These imagined landscapes were probably created about 1597, when Goltzius was also designing 14 illustrations for Karel Van Mander’s translation of Virgil’s pastoral poems, The Ecologues and Georgics. The earliest states were printed on blue paper with just the black line block, before Goltzius added the tone blocks. Bartolomeo Coriolano later copied at least three of the four landscapes in the series, which suggests that they were popular and probably had found a ready market

The Landscape Tradition in Printmaking
Jan 19, 1990 – Apr 22, 1990

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558-1617)
Cliff on a Seashore; from the series "Four Small Landscapes", 1597-1600
Chiaroscuro woodcuts from three blocks in light green, dark green, and black
Plate/Image: 11.4 x 14.4 cm (4 1/2 x 5 11/16 inches)
Gift of Henry D. Sharpe 50.154

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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