Block Printmaker Goltzius

        Technically I’ve already featured a piece by Hendrick Goltzius (Netherlands, 1558-1617).    But I’m trying to make sure this alphabet of printmakers covers a bit of diversity, and my other G options were all in those same early 20th or 21st century time frames.  So I’ll share them some other time, and today you get a bit more of an Old Master.

        Goltzius did more engravings than woodcuts, and was a trendsetter in the use of various shading techniques in engraving.  His woodcuts were often done in the chiaroscuro style (about which you can refresh your memory along with seeing the piece I’d posted previously), so you can see that Golzius was very much interested in tonal shading.  For today I’ve chosen one simple black block, printed on blue paper, which is quite unusual, and another block printed on the same blue paper but with some touches of white for highlights.  They both demonstrate the skill
with line for which Goltzius was famous - his lines look quite loose and natural, almost like brush and ink, but with just enough look of carving to keep me happy.

        One other trivia note about Goltzius: his right hand was deformed from a childhood accident, but it happened to be deformed in just the right way that it worked well for holding engraving tools.  I admire Goltzius for turning a negative circumstance into something that worked for him.

        Here are other previously-featured G printmakers:

Gág, Wanda

Gibbings, Robert

de Graag, Julie

Grashow, James (and here)

Grifalconi, Ann

Griffith, Julius

[Pictures: Seascape with Two-Master, woodcut by Hendrick Goltzius;

Landscape with Waterfall, woodcut with white watercolor by Goltzius, 1597-1600 (Images from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).]

A-Z Challenge, all posts for the letter G