1588
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Ixion is a 1588 ink by Hendrik Goltzius, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This engraving shows a chaotic scene of swirling bodies and limbs tangled together. A man lies stretched out, his arms and legs wrapped around a woman who clutches at him. Above them, a cloud-like shape hovers, while a small figure in the background watches from a distance. The dark lines create a sense of movement and struggle, with every stroke adding to the tension. The artist used fine, crisscrossed lines to build up shadows and texture, making the figures feel almost three-dimensional. This technique is called cross-hatching. Next, look up *cross-hatching* to see how artists create depth with just lines.
Hendrick Goltzius (German: , Dutch: ; né Goltz; January or February 1558 – 1 January 1617) was a German-born Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter.
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