16th-Century Mannerist Works by Dutch Master at Stanford

Goltzius and His Circle
October 8– March 15, 2009

Hendrick Goltzius: Promised Gifts from the
Kirk Long Collection
December 17– March 29, 2009

Stanford, California - The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University presents two exhibitions that focus on the work of Dutch artist Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617). “Hendrick Goltzius: Promised Gifts from the Kirk Long Collection” opens December 17, 2008 and continues through March 29, 2009. That is preceded by an introductory display, October 8, 2008-March 15, 2009, entitled “Goltzius and His Circle.”

“Goltzius was a brilliant draftsman and noteworthy painter, but he is best known for his printmaking. He enjoyed a successful and complex career, first making prints after the designs of others, later engraving his own compositions, and finally producing designs for others to engrave while he devoted himself to painting,” said Bernard Barryte, the Center's curator of European art. “These works span Goltzius's career as a printmaker, revealing his unrivaled mastery as an engraver of the human figure and his proficiency in creating complex, dynamic multi-figure compositions and richly colored woodcuts. This is an opportunity to relish the artist's technical virtuosity and the agility of his imagination through several of his most extraordinary images.”

“Hendrick Goltzius: Promised Gifts from the Kirk Long Collection,” in the Center's Lynn Krywick Gibbons Gallery, presents 17 works by the master. These include a suite of early circular engravings of the Last Judgment commissioned by Philipp Galle, who recognized the talent of the young Goltzius and hired him to engrave his designs; Goltzius's monumental “Marriage of Psyche and Cupid” after a design by Bartolomeus Spranger; and chiaroscuro woodcuts such as “Hercules and Cacus” and “Demogorgon in the Cave of Eternity.”

“Goltzius and His Circle,” in the Center's Early European Gallery, offers 14 works by Goltzius and several printmakers with whom he was associated as a student, engraver, designer, or publisher. These late-16th-century images demonstrate the range of religious and secular subject matter favored by the international audience of the time. Depicting powerful, intertwined figures sustaining precarious yet graceful postures, the prints exemplify the Late Mannerist style and technical brilliance for which Goltzius and his circle are known. Included is a set of the Four Elements by Philipp Galle; a violent “Cain and Abel” by Goltzius collaborator Jan Muller; Jacob Matham's “Mars and Venus” after a design by Goltzius (who was his father-in-law); and Goltzius's famous, unfinished “Adoration of the Shepherds.”

Both exhibitions feature promised gifts from the collection of Kirk Edward Long, with additional works from the Center's collection, and highlight planned giving as an important facet of collection development. These exhibitions are made possible by the Lynn Krywick Gibbons Gallery Exhibitions Fund and the Robert Mondavi Family Fund.

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VISITOR INFORMATION: Cantor Arts Center is open Wednesday – Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm, Thursday until 8 pm. Admission is free. The Center is located on the Stanford campus, off Palm Drive at Museum Way. Parking is free after 4 p.m. and all day on weekends. Information: 650-723-4177, museum.stanford.edu.

PUBLICITY IMAGES
Selected high-resolution images are available for publicity use
Call 650-724-3600 or email mmwhite@stanford.edu