Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Preview image of work. engraving on paper , Phaeton 12766

1994.10.234

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Phaeton

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Artists

Hendrick Goltzius (Bracht-am-Niederrheim, 1558 - 1617, Haarlem) [after Cornelis Van Cornelisz. Haarlem];

Title

Phaeton

Creation Date

1588

Century

late 16th century

Dimensions

13 in. (33 cm)

Object Type

Creation Place

Europe, Netherlands

Medium and Support

engraving on paper

Credit Line

Gift of David P. Becker, Class of 1970

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1994.10.234

Inspired by the Haarlem Mannerist Cornelis van Haarlem, Goltzius converts Phaeton’s body into an abstract whirligig tumbling toward the burning earth and placid waters below. The exaggerated muscles of back, hip, thigh and calf form a rippling contour as the doomed youth strains futilely against his terrible fate. Phaeton’s head, seen from the back, streams with flame-like tufts of hair recalling his failure to control the fiery chariot of the sun. Goltzius’s masterful engraving adds to Cornelis’ original design the effect of the vast vault of heaven and the great heights from which Phaeton falls. Goltzius engraves shallow lines that faintly register the distant landscape and tiny details of falling fragments and flailing steeds from Helios’s broken chariot.