Curators
Jan Piet Filedt Kok,
Ger Luijten,
Larry Nichols
and Nadine Orenstein.
Co-organizers
The exhibition has been organised in cooperation with the Metropolitan Museum, New York (23 June-27 September 2003) and the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo (18 October-4 January 2004).
From the museum website
The versatile artist Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) was an international celebrity in his day. He is best known for his prints: daring compositions with nude figures in elegant poses, a dazzling play of lines and unprecedented technical perfection. Goltzius is also regarded as one of Holland’s finest draughtsmen because of his lifelike portraits in coloured chalk, his masterly depictions of landscape and nature and the superb drawings in an exceptionally large format. Around 1600 Goltzius gave up engraving and began a career as a painter. Inspired by the Italian masters, he painted mythological nudes in striking colour combinations and often in daring erotic poses.
This exhibition is the first major retrospective of the outstanding and important artist Hendrick Goltzius. It includes more than 160 works: drawings, engravings and chiaroscuro woodcuts, and paintings and several pieces in silver and gold. Most of the drawings and paintings come from a large number of leading museums in Europe and the United States. The prints are drawn from the rich collection of the Rijksmuseum Print Room.
Related exhibitions
At the same time as Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617). Drawings, Prints, and Paintings, the Rijksmuseum will also present the exhibition Muscular Bronze. Sculptures by Willem van Tetrode (c. 1525-1580). Ca. 40 bronze sculptures provide an impressive view of the artistic development of one of the most talented and innovative sculptors in Dutch history. Together, the two exhibitions offer a unique opportunity to study the relation between the work of these two contemporaries.
Catalogue
Huigen Leeflang, Ger Luijten, Willem Jacob Engelsman and Lawrence W. Nichols, Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): tekeningen, prenten en schilderijen, Zwolle (Waanders) and Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2003.
ISBN 90-400-8793-8 (hardbound).
English edition: Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617): drawings, prints and paintings, translated from the Dutch by Lynne Richards.
ISBN 90-400-8794-6.
Other venues
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art (23 June – 27 September 2003)
Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art (18 October 2003 – 4 January 2004).