Tantalus, from "The Four Disgracers"

Hendrick Goltzius|Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem

1588 · Engraving · Drawings and Prints

This extraordinary tondo is one of the most daring works to have resulted from the brief collaboration between Goltzius and the painter Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem. The common bond of the series of four fallers is that each one tried to enter the realm of the gods and was punished for his hubris. Although he worked from Cornelisz's designs, Goltzius should be given just as much credit as the painter for the striking nature of these scenes. His bold, meshed, swelling strokes lend the figures a powerful presence and masterfully evoke the reflections of light and shadow on their rippling muscles. The sense of confusion surrounding the falls of Ixion (54.601.338(65)) and Tantalus (seen here) into their hellish surroundings is heightened by repeated patterns of swirling lines. The four seemingly varied poses are in fact more or less the same pose (one leg bent down, the other raised; one arm raised, the other lowered) viewed from different angles.

Artist

Hendrick Goltzius|Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem

Date

1588

Medium

Engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953