Cornelis van Haarlem
Cornelis van Haarlem was a Dutch Mannerist painter known for forceful muscular figures, crowded mythological scenes, and expressive biblical compositions.
Painter
Hendrick Goltzius
Hendrick Goltzius was a Dutch printmaker and painter who helped establish Haarlem Mannerism before turning to more classical oil painting around 1600.
Hendrick Goltzius quick facts
Goltzius’s quick facts trace his shift from influential printmaking to oil painting and place his work in Northern Mannerism and later classicism.
| Full name | Hendrick Goltzius |
|---|---|
| Born | 1558 · Bracht, Duchy of Jülich (now Germany) |
| Died | 1617 · Haarlem, Dutch Republic (now Netherlands) |
| Nationality | Dutch (German-born) |
| Movements | Northern Mannerism (early graphic art); later Dutch classicist and Baroque-era painting |
| Paint types | Oil Paint |
| Other media | Printmaking (engraving · etching) |
| Other materials | — |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Copper |
| Painting methods | Painted in oil on canvas, with naturalistic flesh-tone modeling and carefully controlled classical proportions |
| Common subjects | Adam and Eve, classical mythology, Biblical narratives, allegorical virtues, muscular human figures, and landscapes |
| Notable works | The Fall of Man · Lot and His Daughters · Vertumnus and Pomona · The Great Hercules |
Sources: National Gallery of Art: Goltzius biography and move into painting, National Gallery of Art: The Fall of Man, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum: Lot and His Daughters, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum: Vertumnus and Pomona, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum: From Mannerism to classicism.
Paint types used by Hendrick Goltzius
Goltzius turned to large oil paintings around 1600, translating anatomical drawing into modeled figures and rich color in works such as the Danaë.
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Oil paint
After establishing his reputation as an engraver and draftsman, Goltzius turned to large-scale oil painting around 1600. The National Gallery of Art catalogs The Fall of Man (1616) as oil on canvas; its monumental, muscular figures translate his lifelong interest in anatomy from sharply controlled print lines into modeled bodies and color.
Sources: National Gallery of Art: The Fall of Man; National Gallery of Art: Hendrick Goltzius.; Frans Hals Museum: Mercury; Princeton: Man of Sorrows with a Chalice
Painting surfaces used by Hendrick Goltzius
Collection records document canvas in Hendrick Goltzius’s work, with examples below tying it to named works instead of inferring it from style or period.
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Canvas
The National Gallery records Goltzius’s The Fall of Man as oil on canvas, and the Rijksmuseum gives the same support for Lot and His Daughters and Vertumnus and Pomona. These are completed narrative paintings, showing canvas in his history and mythological subjects after he turned from printmaking to painting.
Sources: National Gallery of Art: Goltzius biography and move into painting, National Gallery of Art: The Fall of Man, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum: Lot and His Daughters, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum: Vertumnus and Pomona, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum: From Mannerism to classicism.
Painters similar to Hendrick Goltzius
Goltzius collaborated in Haarlem with Cornelis van Haarlem and helped spread the sinuous Prague Mannerist style of Spranger through his engravings.
Bartholomeus Spranger
Bartholomeus Spranger was a Flemish-born Northern Mannerist painter whose twisting figures and mythological scenes shaped Rudolf II’s Prague court style.