Vulcan

Hendrik Goltzius

1592

ink

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Renaissance Renaissance

About this work

This painting shows Vulcan, a figure from Roman mythology. He's standing and holding tools. The detail that makes this work interesting is the way the artist used lines and shading to create texture and depth, which was a skillful thing to do in an engraving. The artist's use of lines is very detailed. This suggests a lot of practice and patience. To learn more, look up the technique: engraving.