Jan Harmensz. Muller

Jan Harmensz. Muller was perhaps the most outrageous of Hendrick Goltzius’s followers, and his visually extravagant works promote the idea that engraved lines could exhibit sculptural or figural form in and of themselves. To commemorate his teacher in this portrait (created the year of Goltzius’s death) Muller organized the wide, swelling grooves with ample space between them to build a sculptural form matched by a sculptural niche. The niche area also displays a moiré pattern, an optical effect that creates a distracting visual interference when crossed lines are overlaid at slight angles. Goltzius himself avoided this effect.