1558-1617 Dutch Hendrik Goltzius (1558 - January 1, 1617), Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter, was born at Millebrecht, in the duchy of Julich. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, noted for his sophisticated technique. After studying painting on glass for some years under his father, he was taught the use of the burin by Dirk Volkertszoon Coornhert, a Dutch engraver of mediocre attainment, whom he soon surpassed, but who retained his services for his own advantage. He was also employed by Philip Galle to engrave a set of prints of the history of Lucretia. At the age of 21 he married a widow somewhat advanced in years, whose money enabled him to establish at Haarlem an independent business; but his unpleasant relations with her so affected his health that he found it advisable in 1590 to make a tour through Germany to Italy, where he acquired an intense admiration for the works of Michelangelo, which led him to emulate that master in the grotesqueness and extravagance of his designs. He returned to Haarlem considerably improved in health, and laboured there at his art till his death. Goltzius' painting Lot and his daughters (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) shows Lot being seduced by his two daughters. Sodom and Gomorrah are shown burning in the background, with Lot's wife who had turned into a pillar of salt, in front.Goltzius ought not to be judged chiefly by the works he valued most, his eccentric imitations of Michelangelo. His portraits, though mostly miniatures, are masterpieces of their kind, both on account of their exquisite finish, and as fine studies of individual character. Of his larger heads, the life-size portrait of himself is probably the most striking example. His masterpieces, so called from their being attempts to imitate the style of the old masters, have perhaps been overpraised. Goltzius brought to an unprecedented level the use of the "swelling line", where the burin is manipulated to make lines thicker or thinner to create a tonal effect from a distance. He also was a pioneer of "dot and lozenge" technique, where dots are placed in the middle of lozenge shaped spaces created by cross-hatching to further refine tonal shading. A self portraitHollstein credits 388 prints to him, with a further 574 by other printmakers after his designs. In his command of the burin Goltzius is said to rival that of Durer's; but his technical skill is not equally aided by higher artistic qualities. Even, however, his eccentricities and extravagances are greatly counterbalanced by the beauty and freedom of his execution. He made engravings of Bartholomeus Spranger's paintings, thus increasing the fame of the latter - and his own. Goltzius began painting at the age of forty-two; some of his paintings can be found in the imperial collection at Vienna. He also executed a few chiaroscuro woodcuts. He was the stepfather of engraver Jacob Matham.  Related Paintings of Hendrick Goltzius :. | Job in Distress | Hercules and Cacus | Venus and Adonis | Hercules and Cacus | Minerva as personification of wisdom |
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Loo, Jacob van
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, 1614-1670 was a Dutch painter and popularized around 1650 a close-focus concert on a loggia or terrace. So Van Loo became known for his conversation groupings with a subtle color palette, and according to Arnold Houbraken famous for his nudes. He was the founder of the Van Loo family of painters. Van Loo was born in Zeeland in the Dutch Republic. His father might have been a notary, but most time he is regarded as the son of a painter, Jan van Loo, who trained him. (As part of the city archives in Sluis have been destroyed during World War II it is impossible now to make out what is true). His early influences include Thomas de Keyser and Jacob Adriaensz Backer. In 1642, Jacob moved to Amsterdam, where his contemporaries included Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Bartholomeus van der Helst. In 1643 he married the sister of the painter Martinus Lengele and had six children. They lived on Rozengracht, in the Jordaan and Eglon van der Neer became one of his pupils. In 1660, Van Loo fled the city after having fatally stabbed someone in his belly, during a fight in an inn. He was sentenced to death in absentia and was forever banned from the state of Holland. Van Loo settled in Paris, where he was admitted to the Acad??mie de peinture et de sculpture and where he died in 1670. Van Loo's work was done in the Baroque style, which had begun in Rome and which was becoming a Europe-wide phenomenon in this period. He was a major influence on Johannes Vermeer, when painting Diana and Her Companions. He painted portraits of Johan Huydecoper van Maarssenveen, his wife, his sister Leonara Huydecoper, married to Jan J.
Michiel Sittow
Estonian 1468-1525 Michiel Sittow Gallery