The Great Hercules or 'Knollenman'
1589
Hendrick Goltzius
Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558–1617)
Prints
The Great Hercules or 'Knollenman', 1589. Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558–1617). Engraving; sheet: 56.3 x 40.1 cm (22 3/16 x 15 13/16 in.); image: 54.2 x 40 cm (21 5/16 x 15 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1995.38 The exaggerated and unnatural musculature of this figure may suggest that the Netherlandish artist Hendrick Goltzius had never studied a real human body. Indeed, he pulled from a mixture of sources including classical sculpture, Italian art, and his imagination. Goltzius ushered in Mannerism in Northern Europe, a style that featured exaggerated forms and metaphorical and allegorical subject matter. Known for his skill with an engraving burin, he transformed the technique, creating engraved lines that taper and swell to emphasize volume and form to extreme effect.
- Maker/Artist
- Goltzius, Hendrick
- Classification
- Formatted Medium
- engraving
- Medium
- engraving
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 56.3 x 40.1 cm (22 3/16 x 15 13/16 in.); Image: 54.2 x 40 cm (21 5/16 x 15 3/4 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: lower left, in plate: HG[in monogram]oltzius Invent. et sculpt. A°.1589. ; across bottom, in plate: Amphityoniadae virtus terraque marique / Quem latet? et tanti saeua nouerca mali? / Ille tot expositus monstris, Hydraeque, tricorpor / Geryon atque tibi, flammiuomoque Caco. / Ille hîc Antaeum, et superat te Acheloe bicornem; / Naiades at truncum fruge ferace beant.
- Departments
- Prints
- Accession Number
- 1995.38
- Credit Line
- Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland
- Exhibitions
- Mannerism: Italian, French, and Netherlandish Prints, 1520-1620, From Rembrandt to Rauschenberg: Recently Acquired Prints, A Lasting Impression: Gifts of the Print Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 8/3/97 - 10/26/97. "Mannerism: Italian, French, and Netherlandish Prints, 1520-1620.", Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; September 17 - November 26, 2000. "From Rembrandt to Rauschenberg: Recently Acquired Prints."
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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