Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532-1588), English Nobleman, Governor-General of the United Provinces in 1585-87

Prints and Drawings

1586

Hendrick Goltzius
Dutch, 1558-1617

Like the related genre of painted miniatures, small-scale portrait prints require close inspection and delicate handling. The round format of these prints invites comparisons to oval miniatures and cast medallions. In the case of Goltzius’s portrait of Dudley (and other examples from the artist’s oeuvre), the print matrix—a gold plate—was itself a work of art, and only a handful of impressions were pulled so as to preserve the surface of the soft precious metal. The double status of the print matrix also explains why the text appears reversed in the print; on the face of the gold plate, the letters would still appear in the correct direction.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Hendrick Goltzius
Title: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532-1588), English Nobleman, Governor-General of the United Provinces in 1585-87
Place: Netherlands (Artist's nationality)
Date: Made 1586
Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: Image/sheet, trimmed within platemark: 6.1 × 5.2 cm (2 7/16 × 2 1/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Morris Woolf
Reference Number: 1941.432
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/41669/manifest.json

Bartsch, illustrated 175 I/I

Strauss 226 I/I

Hollstein, The New 213 only state

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