Spring, Drawing for Engraving of the Same Subject

Hendrick Goltzius made this drawing, "Spring," with pen and brown ink, as a study for a print. The use of drawing as a preparation for reproductive engraving was typical of the time. The lines, laid down with such deliberate precision, are what give the image its character. Look closely, and you can appreciate the disciplined hand needed to build up the forms. The drawing would have been made in preparation for an engraving, effectively a design for a product. This kind of printmaking was part of the great expansion of visual culture in early modern Europe, a boom in the circulation of images. The line was everything, because it would be translated into the incisions that held the ink. The making of such prints involved many hands, each contributing their skills to the final image. It is a reminder that even seemingly singular artistic gestures are often embedded in social processes of production. The drawing is not just a work of art, but a step in a larger commercial process.