HENDRICK GOLTZIUS Icarus, from "The Four Disgracers."
Engraving, 1588. 335 mm; 13¼ inches (diameter). Strasburg Lily watermark. Wide to small margins. A superb impression of this very scarce, important engraving. Bartsch 259; New Hollstein 326.
This is one of four engravings from Goltzius' (1558-1617) The Four Disgracers series. Each of the engravings represents a mortal figure from mythology who has been too ambitious for their own good; aspiring to be gods, they were punished by the gods for their misguided efforts. Tantalus and Ixion spent eternity being tortured in Tartarus, Phaeton was struck by Zeus' lightning bolt and fell to his death and Icarus, having soared too close to the sun and melted his homemade wings of feathers and wax, fell to his death in the sea.
Goltzius' engravings of The Four Disgracers are strikingly modern in the treatment of the fleshiness of the human body, showing figures so self-absorbed it led to their demise, set in scenes that appear to be frozen in time and space, while he used traditional engraving techniques to achieve extraordinary chiaroscuro and modelling.
