Triumph of Galatea
| Reference: | S45379 |
| Author | Hendrick GOLTZIUS |
| Year: | 1592 |
| Measures: | 410 x 560 mm |
€2,800.00
| Reference: | S45379 |
| Author | Hendrick GOLTZIUS |
| Year: | 1592 |
| Measures: | 410 x 560 mm |
€2,800.00
Description
Galatea drives across the water in her chariot of a shell drawn by two dolphins, surrounded by Tritons and Nereids, after Raphael.
Engraving, 1592, dated and signed at the bottom.
Lettered in the margin in three columns, each two lines "Nerine spumante ... vivere gaudet" by "F. Estius". Below "Opus hoc depictam est suis coloribus Rome ad parietem per Raphaelemm D'Urbin, in palatio Augustini Ghigi, et ibidem ab HGoltzio adnotatum, / et deinde eri in insculptum. Anno. 1592".
After Raphael's fresco in the villa of Agostino Chigi (now the Villa Farnesina).
The fresco the Triumph of Galatea, which Raphael Sanzio saw commissioned by the powerful banker Agostino Chigi for his new Roman villa, remains to this day one of his absolute masterpieces. The painting is meant to dialogue with other nearby frescoes, however, it has a bit of the flavor of "unfinished," as it tells only part of the myth of the nymph in love with the handsome shepherd Aci and contended by Polyphemus.
Raphael Sanzio devoted himself to the fresco known as the Triumph of Galatea in the early decades of the'500s. At the Villa Farnesina the work is located in a lunette, between two paintings by Sebastiano del Piombo: in the initial project, in all probability, more scenes of the legend of Galatea were to be frescoed by Raphael, instead only the main events were described. According to Baldassarre Castiglione's account, Raphael painted the beautiful nymph at his own idea, without any models posing for him.
In the allegory-rich Renaissance world, the Triumph of Galatea has a meaning related to myth: Galatea is one of the daughters of Nereus and Doris, thus one of the fifty sea nymphs known as Nereids. In love with Acis, Galatea arouses the envy of Polyphemus, who is in turn in love with her: when the latter sees Galatea's flame together with her, blinded by jealousy he hurls a boulder of lava at Acis, killing him. Zeus, spotting Galatea weeping all the tears she has over the poor boy's body, decides to transform the blood of the deceased into a river, identifiable in Sicily, which flows from Mount Etna and whose spring has a color tending to red, due to the presence there of iron oxides.
Magnificent proof, richly toned, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed at margin, laid down on "japon" paper, restorations at bottom and upper right corner perfectly executed, otherwise in good condition.
Bibliografia
The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts 1450-1700 n. 334; Hollstein / Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts c.1450-1700 n. 313; Hirschmann 1921 / Hendrik Goltzius, Verzeichnis des graphischen Werkes n. 313; Strauss 1977 / Hendrik Goltzius: the complete engravings and woodcuts n. 288; Bartsch / Le Peintre graveur III.82.270; H. Leeflang, G.Luijten, 'Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): Drawings, prints and paintings', Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, ex. cat. 2003, n. 45.
Hendrick GOLTZIUS (Mulbrecht 1559 - Haarlem 1617)
|
Dutch painter and engraver, was born at Millebrecht, in the duchy of Julich.
After studying painting on glass for some years under his father, he was taught the use of the burin by Dirk Volkertszoon Coornlert, a Dutch engraver of mediocre attainment, whom he soon surpassed, but who retained his services for his own advantage. He was also employed by Philip Galle to engrave a set of prints of the history of Lucretia.
At the age of twenty-one he married a widow somewhat advanced in years, whose money enabled him to establish at Haarlem an independent business; however his unpleasant relations with her so affected his health that he found it advisable in 1590 to make a tour through Germany to Italy, where he acquired an intense admiration for the works of Michelangelo, which led him to surpass that master in the grotesqueness and extravagance of his designs. He returned to Haarlem considerably improved in health, and laboured there at his art till his death.
Goltzius ought not to be judged chiefly by the works he valued most, his eccentric imitations of Michelangelo. His portraits, though mostly miniatures, are master-pieces of their kind, both on account of their exquisite finish, and as fine studies of individual character. Of his larger heads, the life-size portrait of himself is probably the most striking example. His master-pieces, so called from their being attempts to imitate the style of the old masters, have perhaps been overpraised.
In his command of the burin Goltzius is not surpassed even by Dürr; but his technical skill is often unequally aided by higher artistic qualities. Even, however, his eccentricities and extravagances are greatly counterbalanced by the beauty and freedom of his execution. He began painting at the age of forty-two, but none of his works in this branch of art--some of which are in the imperial collection at Vienna--display any special excellences. He also executed a few pieces in chiaroscuro.
|
Hendrick GOLTZIUS (Mulbrecht 1559 - Haarlem 1617)
|
Dutch painter and engraver, was born at Millebrecht, in the duchy of Julich.
After studying painting on glass for some years under his father, he was taught the use of the burin by Dirk Volkertszoon Coornlert, a Dutch engraver of mediocre attainment, whom he soon surpassed, but who retained his services for his own advantage. He was also employed by Philip Galle to engrave a set of prints of the history of Lucretia.
At the age of twenty-one he married a widow somewhat advanced in years, whose money enabled him to establish at Haarlem an independent business; however his unpleasant relations with her so affected his health that he found it advisable in 1590 to make a tour through Germany to Italy, where he acquired an intense admiration for the works of Michelangelo, which led him to surpass that master in the grotesqueness and extravagance of his designs. He returned to Haarlem considerably improved in health, and laboured there at his art till his death.
Goltzius ought not to be judged chiefly by the works he valued most, his eccentric imitations of Michelangelo. His portraits, though mostly miniatures, are master-pieces of their kind, both on account of their exquisite finish, and as fine studies of individual character. Of his larger heads, the life-size portrait of himself is probably the most striking example. His master-pieces, so called from their being attempts to imitate the style of the old masters, have perhaps been overpraised.
In his command of the burin Goltzius is not surpassed even by Dürr; but his technical skill is often unequally aided by higher artistic qualities. Even, however, his eccentricities and extravagances are greatly counterbalanced by the beauty and freedom of his execution. He began painting at the age of forty-two, but none of his works in this branch of art--some of which are in the imperial collection at Vienna--display any special excellences. He also executed a few pieces in chiaroscuro.
|