Works included in this catalogue
* Goltzius Adoration of the Magi 1594 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]
* Goltzius The Visitation 1593 {by 1894} Loc? [PR]

Goltzius, a prolific printmaker and painter who lived in Haarlem, produced a series of six engravings from the life of the Virgin Mary, in 1593-4, parodying other artists’ styles. These included the two pre-Felton impressions noted above. The famous Dürer hommage from the set, The Circumcision (1594), was acquired for the NGV, through the Felton Bequest, in 1923.

In 2014, British cinema director Peter Greenaway released a film based on Goltzius’ life (focussing particularly on his erotic works), the central part of a trilogy of films on Dutch artists (the others being Rembrandt and Bosch).

Refs.

For Goltzius, see Bénézit 6, pp.403-5 and AKL 57 (2008), pp.408-12 (with further references). For details and reproductions of the Marian series, see Huigen Leefgang & Ger Luijten, Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), Drawings, Prints and Paintings, Zwolle, Amsterdam, New York & Toledo, 2003 (exh.cat.; available online), cat.nos.75.1-6. For the NGV impression of the Circumcision, see http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/32717/

For Greenaway’s Goltzius & the Pelican Company (2014), see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goltzius_and_the_Pelican_Company. The first film in the triptych was Nightwatching (2007), which treats Rembrand’s famous group portrait as a murder mystery; for the script, with some typically provocative introductory remarks by the director, see his book Nightwatching, Paris: Dis Voir, 2006. The third film, a bio-picture on Hieronymus Bosch, was scheduled for release in 2016, the 500thanniversary of the painter’s death, but does not seem to have eventuated: see now https://www.nu.nl/film/2775693/greenaway-maakt-film-jeroen-bosch-.html (accessed 16 March 2019)