Cleveland Museum of Art

Apollo Belvedere

Hendrick Goltzius

Date

1592

Medium

engraving

Culture

Netherlands, 16th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Hendrick Goltzius was one of many late Renaissance artists who felt compelled to travel to Italy as part of his artistic training. He went with one purpose—to study antique sculpture. Goltzius made drawings on-site and then made engravings after his designs once he returned to Haarlem in 1591. He portrayed the Apollo Belvedere from a low viewpoint to capture the awesome experience of first encountering the famous monument. A seated, sketching artist emphasizes the experience of visiting, seeing, and drawing the sculpture in situ. The engraving shows to excellent advantage the virtuosic technique that Goltzius developed, in which the swelling and tapering line exaggerates the heroic musculature of the figure. The 2nd-century Apollo Belvedere was unearthed in central Italy during the Renaissance and was on display at the Vatican Palace by the time Hendrick Goltzius visited the city.

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