Art Institute of Chicago

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532-1588), English Nobleman, Governor-General of the United Provinces in 1585-87

Hendrick Goltzius

Date

1586

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper

Culture

Netherlands

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Like the related genre of painted miniatures, small-scale portrait prints require close inspection and delicate handling. The round format of these prints invites comparisons to oval miniatures and cast medallions. In the case of Goltzius’s portrait of Dudley (and other examples from the artist’s oeuvre), the print matrix—a gold plate—was itself a work of art, and only a handful of impressions were pulled so as to preserve the surface of the soft precious metal. The double status of the print matrix also explains why the text appears reversed in the print; on the face of the gold plate, the letters would still appear in the correct direction.

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