Circumcision

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Artist Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, January or February 1558–1617)

Title Circumcision

Series Life of the Virgin

Date 1594

Medium Engraving on paper

Dimensions Image: 18 1/4 × 13 13/16 in. (46.4 × 35.1 cm)
Plate: 18 3/4 × 13 15/16 in. (47.6 × 35.4 cm)
Sheet: 20 3/4 × 15 5/8 in. (52.7 × 39.7 cm)

Credit Line Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 72.131.4

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About this Work

Standing in the entryway to the main temple chamber is a figure who resembles a time traveler and seems curiously out of place amid the others gathered to witness the infant Christ’s circumcision. Beard and moustache betray him to be Goltzius himself, the artist behind this extraordinary engraving. The design is his own, but the style bears such an uncanny resemblance to Dürer’s hand that many who saw this print at first believed it based on a newly rediscovered composition. In fact, it is one of six prints from this series, in which Goltzius staged a grand display of his own virtuosity, emulating the style of some of his most illustrious predecessors.

Provenance
More Details

Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

Series Title Life of the Virgin
Foreign Language Series Title Meesterstukjes

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"Circumcision | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2024. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=72.131.4