According to the Grove Dictionary of Art (13:222-223), Goudt may hace trained with Simon Frisius, but he was more strongly influenced by Jacques de Gheyn II and especially Hendrik Goltzius, whose engraved figures strongly influenced Goudt. In 1608, Goudt went to Rome and seeems to have worked with Adam Elsheimer, to whom he may have been both patron and pupil. His most important service for Elsheimer, however, may have been the 7 engravings he made after some of his. These were widely disseminated throughout Europe and made Elsheimer famous. As Keith Andrews suggests, "the quality of the engravings is something of a miracle, since no previous works by Goudt anticipate such masterpieces, which with their strong sense of of chiaroscuro foreshadow the technique of mezzotint." our print was made in 1612-13, after Goudt had returned to the northern Netherlands" (222). Unlike his first two prints, which declare Elsheimer as "inventor," these do not. Andrews suggests the Goudt may have owned the paintings he engraved, since he apparently showed some of them to Sandrart when the latter visited him in Utrecht in 1625 and 1626. Our piece, The Beheading of John the Baptist (Hollstein 4), is the only one without a date. Goudt registered with the Utrecht guild of St. Luke as an engraver (1611), but many of the drawings previously attributed to Elsheimer are now ascribed to Goudt.

Bibliography on Goudt: The only works in English on Goudt is the section on him in Keith Andrews, Adam Elsheimer (Oxford, 1977) and a note by Felice Stampfle, Goudt's Drawings of Tobias and the Angel," Essays in Northern European Art Presented to Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann (Doornspijk, 1983). There are a number of works in Dutch and German however, helpfully listed in the Grove article.

John the Baptist's Head placed on a Salome's platter (Hollstein 4 i/iii). Engraving after Adam Elsheimer, 1612-13. Ours is a good impression on laid paper with thread margins. There is a small paper loss upper right. It is signed in the plate lower right with the artist's monogram. This is one of only seven prints by Goudt, who has been called "the pivotal figure in the quest for dark tonalities in 17th-century Dutch printmaking" and an important influence on Rembrandt. See Ackley, 1982. Image size: 66x55mm. Price: SOLD

Note: Our photograph is larger than life.

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