Code: 10124
Dimensions:
HENDRICK GOLTZIUS Mülbracht 1558 - 1617 Haarlem
The Venetian Ball (The Venetian Wedding), in the background a view of the lagoon as seen from the house of Titian.
Engraving, after Dirck Barendsz; 1584. Bartsch 247, Hollstein 292, Hirschmann 292, New Hollstein 311, the first of three states, before the successive addresses of A. Waesber and Dancker Danckertz. A very fine impression, black and sharp, with the full range of tones for which the engraving is noted. In fine condition, printed on two joined sheets as usual. Trimmed on the borderline of the image and including the text below; two printer’s creases and some small marginal repairs. Only the third impression of this engraving we have seen in trade in over forty years.
The large engraving, by far the largest Goltzius had produced to this date and one of the largest of his oeuvre, constitutes in its scale and panache what may be seen as a Northern response to the grand scale of Venetian painting of the period, which itself may have been the impetus for the work. The preparatory drawing in Amsterdam is in reverse of the engraving and has traditionally thought to have been by Dirck Barendsz, especially as Goltzius gives Barendsz credit for the invention of the print. The most recent scholarship however, gives the Amsterdam drawing to Goltzius, even if the engraver may have had access to a large-scale painting by Barendsz.
The engraving is notable for the grand assemblage of richly dressed figures, each depicted in precise and variegated costume and a composition which succeeds in giving the impression of a splendid, festive scene whose impressive quality is amplified by the unity of interior and exterior space, all qualities which animate the grand scale paintings of Veronese. The success of this engraving notwithstanding, Goltzius soon turned to different sources, notably the style and subject matter of his fellow Northerner, Bartholomaeus Spranger. Still it would be hard to imagine Goltzius mastering the compositional bravura of Spranger without first having given us the rich interplay of figures of the Venetian Wedding.
430 x 735 mm 16 7/8 x 28 15/16 inches
Hendrick Goltzius, Drawings, Prints and Paintings, exhibition catalogue Amsterdam and New York 2003, Leeflang, Luitjen et al. cat. no. 12, pp. 48-50.
ibid.
