EPPH - Every Painter Paints Himself

Art's Masterpieces Explained

Goltzius’ Apollo (1588)

Hendrik Goltzius was said to be serious and thoughtful, a man "who does not concern himself at all with worldly cares and everyday
chatter, but someone who, out of an all-surpassing love of art, is happy to be silent and alone with a quiet soul, because art possesses
him utterly." 1 Apprenticed to an engraver and ethicist whose unorthodox Catholicism appealed to tolerance and reason as a remedy for
religious fanaticism, Goltzius appears to have acquired at an early age a philosophical, all-embracing approach to life in keeping with the
essential spirit of the Inner Tradition. Described as witty and inventive by both contemporaries and modern scholars, we have in fact
been provided with very little evidence of either. Reports of a practical joke or two and the discovery that in a few engravings he imitated
another artist's style is all we have. 2 There has to be more.

Goltzius was a master engraver and Mannerist whose dazzling technique so

overwhelms his viewers that they often miss his meaning in thinking his style is
all. This particular engraving is so crammed with detail that it deserves extended
analysis. Yet, to be brief, I will reveal only certain elements that have never been
seen (as always, except by artists, of course). Their implications will change not
only the meaning of this image but of Goltzius' art in general.

Goltzius, Apollo (1588) Engraving on paper

Unnoted in Apollo's hip facing us, closer to the surface than any other part of his
body, is a bearded and mustachioed "face". If that were all, the claim would
remain unproven and possibly meaningless. Yet this is not just a face. It's a
specific face.

Detail of hip from Goltzius' Apollo

 It is the artist's father, Jan Goltz II, a not very successful painter of stained glass.
In comparing Goltzius' portrait of him to the muscles in the hip, you should be
able to recognize similarity in the overall shape, proportions and expression.

Goltzius, Apollo (1588)

Inset left: Enlarged detail of Goltzius' Apollo
Inset right: Goltzius' Portrait of Jan Goltz II (1579), a detail. Metalpoint on tablet. Den
Kongelige Koberstiksamling, Copenhagen.

A closer look reveals numerous points of similarity as outlined in the diagrams

below. From the curving contour of the torso (and face) on the far right to the
sinuous line of the moustache descending on the left there are too many
correspondences for coincidence. This would be remarkable enough if the
reference were to any of his portraits; that it is his father's, confirms it.

Top left and right: Details of Goltzius' Apollo and Portrait of Jan Goltz II
Lower left and right: Diagrams of details above

A Goltzius' specialist has noted that Apollo's pose derives from Lucas van
Leyden's engraving of The Standard-Bearer (c.1510), an image I revealed only
yesterday also includes a hidden "face". 3 Goltzius associated Apollo's figure,
through its pose, with Lucas' own. The divine Apollo, descended from Lucas,
represents artistic perfection in Goltzius' mind, an observation confirmed by the
artist's monogram beneath his foot. Emerging reincarnated out of his father's
"head", Goltzius takes on the great master's mantle from Lucas whose mind he
seems to have felt he shared. The oval tondo and the circular tunnel within,
Apollo visible on his chariot in the distance, seems to represent Goltzius' visual
system (behind his eye) just as Apollo's pointing finger to the right represents his
craft. Finally, the twisting, rock-like clouds now seem to represent the soft
crenellations of the cerebral cortex, something more commonly depicted in art
than many realize.

Goltzius, Apollo (1588)

Notes:

1. Paraphrase of Karl van Mander, Levens, fols. 286r-286v. cited in Hendrick Goltzius: Drawings, Prints and Paintings (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art)
2003, p. 13
2. Huigen Leeflang, "The Life of Hendrick Goltzius" in Hendrick Goltzius, op. cit., pp. 14-16

3. Orenstein, "Finally Spranger: Prints and Print Designs, 1586-90" in Hendrick Goltzius, op. cit., pp. 94-6

Original Publication Date: 01 Mar 2013

© Simon Abrahams.