Mars and Venus
Hendrick Goltzius
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
In this imposing, erotically charged engraving, Goltzius presents the adulterous liaison between Venus and Mars. They are embracing on a canopied bed, aided and attended by Cupid and three winged putti. Visible through the window at the left is Apollo, the all-seeing sun god, racing in his chariot to warn Venus’s husband Vulcan of her infidelity. According to the inscription in the lower center, the print is based on a design, now lost, by Bartholomeus Spranger, court artist to Rudolf II of Prague. Goltzius was first introduced to Spranger’s works in 1583, and by 1588, the date of this engraving, had fully absorbed his style, not only in the extravagant poses and exaggerated musculature, but in his very handling of the print medium. Goltzius uses the diamond-shaped head of the burin (the engraver’s tool) to create lines that swell and taper, curving around and defining the figures. In some places, they seem to take on a life of their own, as in the patterning on Cupid’s thighs and buttocks. Goltzius sets the pale bodies of the lovers against the dark, tented background of their bed so they shine out at us. The overall effect is of a glittering display of light and shade that flickers across the surface of the print.
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.