Hendrick Goltzius

The Hamburger Kunsthalle is currently playing host to an illustrious guest. The painting Christ in Distress by the Dutch artist Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) is on view in the Old Masters section of the Lichtwark Gallery until 6 January 2019. The parish of St. Marien in Uelzen has generously loaned the museum this important panel painting for the duration of an extensive restoration of the church interior.

In the last two decades of the 16th century, Hendrick Goltzius, a draughtsman, engraver and painter working in Haarlem, earned a reputation as one of the most influential and well-known artists in Europe. He first displayed his virtuosity in printmaking, even publishing his works himself, and then increasingly turned to painting from 1600 onwards.

Considered the foremost representative of so-called Haarlem mannerism, Goltzius radically focused all attention in this composition on the figure of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, choosing an unusual and eye-catching diamond-shaped format. The compressed, hunched body of Christ absorbed in contemplation occupies the entire picture space. The implements of torture and the splashes of blood on the column and on Christ's garments and forehead bear witness to the torments of the scourge, the crown of thorns and the sceptre used to mock him. The strong light that accentuates the body and the view from below allow the viewer to experience immediately and vividly Christ's suffering. The exaggerated musculature is reminiscent of Michelangelo’s figures in the ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. Goltzius had taken a trip to Italy at the end of the 16th century, including to Rome, where he would certainly have drawn inspiration for his own work

A pendant to the picture in the same format and likewise made in 1616, representing Job in Distress, is today in New York in the Gregory Callimanopulos Collection.