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GOLITZIUS

Volume 9 · 547 words · 1815 Edition

HENRY, a famous engraver and painter, born in 1558, at Mulbreck in the duchy of Juliers. He was taught the art of engraving by Theodore Cuen- renhert; and succeeded very wonderfully in it, notwithstanding the disadvantage of a lame hand, which was occasioned by his falling into the fire whilst young. He was first employed by his master, and afterwards he worked for Philip Galle. Domestic troubles and ill health occasioned him to travel. He went through Germany into Italy; and passed under a feigned name, that his studies might not be interrupted. He visited Bologna, Florence, Naples, and Venice, constantly applying himself to drawing from the antique statues, and the works of the great masters. At Rome he re- sided the longest; and there he produced several excel- lent engravings from Poldoro Raphael, and other emi- nent painters. On his return to his native country he established himself at Haerlem, where he engraved many of the drawings which he had made during his abode in Italy. He died at Haerlem in 1617, aged 59. He is said to have been 40 years old before he began to paint; yet his pictures are spoken of with great com- mendation; but as he did not produce any great num- ber of them, they are rarely to be met with. As an engraver, he deserves the highest commendation. No man ever surpassed, and few have equalled, him in the command of the graver and freedom of execution. He copied the style of Albert Durer, Lucas of Leyden, and other old masters, with astonishing exactness. Sometimes his engravings are neat in the extreme; at other times they are performed in a bold open manner, without the least restraint. He also engraved several of his own designs on wood, in that manner which is distin- guished by the appellation of chiaro-fuero. Of his prints, which are very numerous, it may here suffice to specify two or three of the most celebrated: 1. Six large upright plates, known by the name of his mester- pieces. These, it is said, he engraved to convince the public that he was perfectly capable of imitating the styles of Albert Durer, Lucas Van Leyden, and other masters, whose works were then held in higher estimation than his own: for he had adopted a new manner, which he purified b'cause he thought it superior, and not because he was incapable of following the others. It is reported that with one of them, the Circumcision, which he smoked to give it the more plausible air of antiquity, he actually deceived some of the most capital connoisseurs of the day; by one of whom it was bought for an original engraving of Albert Durer. The subjects of these plates are, The Annunciation of the Virgin; the Meeting of the Virgin with Elizabeth, called the Visitation; the Nativity of Christ; the Cir- cunciation of Christ; the Adoration of the Wise Men; the Holy Family. 2. The Judgment of Midas, a large plate lengthwise. 3. The Venetian Ball, a large plate lengthwise, from Theodore Bernard. 4. The Boy and Dog, Dog, a middling-sized upright plate, from a design of his own; an admirable print. 5. The Necromancer, a middling-sized upright oval print, in chiaro-scuro. 6. Night in her Chariot, the fame.