Description:
The fourth plate from the series of six (1593-94); Luke 2:21. Latin text by Cornelius Schoneus.
Label Text:
Marginal Latin text by Cornelius Schoneus:
Cernis ut octava sit circuncisus Jesus / Luce puer, tenero accipiens in corpore vulnus, / Ad normam veteris legis, ritumque receptum, / Isacidis multos observatumque per annos. C. Schonaeus.
You see how Jesus is circumcised on the eighth day and in his tender little body receives a wound according to the rules of the ancient law and the custom that has been observed for many years.
Goltzius based the composition of his "Circumcision" on Dürer’s woodcut of the same scene from his own "Life of the Virgin" series of 1500-1511 (fig. 8). Goltzius borrowed Dürer’s general composition and some individual figures, such as the high priest and the figure with the candlestick. Instead of imitating Dürer’s woodcut technique, however, Goltzius instead mimicked in grand scale Dürer’s engraving style as demonstrated in the "Virgin and Child Seated by a Tree." Goltzius successfully -- and famously -- passed off smoke-smudged impressions of this print lacking his monogram as a lost original by Dürer. But, for the observant, he included key details indicating his identity: the architectural space is based upon Goltzius’s hometown church, St. Bavo in Haarlem and a self-portrait appears at the rear right as a bearded and moustached man facing directly at the viewer. Especially with this print, Goltzius proved, through subterfuge, his rightful position among the great masters.
(Susan Anderson, Ph.D., interim Mellon Coordinator of College Programs, 2009)
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1979.46.4 |
