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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileafter Hendrick Goltzius
The saint is shown as a robust, curly-haired man looking back toward the viewer while holding a paintbrush and mahlstick. Above him, a celestial assembly of cherubs floats in thick clouds surrounding a bull, the traditional symbol of Luke. On his easel, a partially completed painting of the Madonna and Child is visible against a background showing a distant landscape with a castle.
This work embodies the Neoplatonic concept of the artist as a divinely inspired 'alter deus' (another god) who translates spiritual archetypes into material form. As the patron of the Guild of Saint Luke, the figure serves as a bridge between the manual craft of the 'Haarlem Mannerists' and the higher intellectual pursuit of capturing the divine essence.
HG FECIT. Iac. Matham Sculptor Nobilis ille Syrus, non ultimus arte medendi Mystica taurina referens insignia frontis Divinum formabat opus doctaq: colorum Temperie sacros audebat ponere Vultus, Spectatæ probitatis Viro D. Maximiliano Laignier [etc] Goltziun Opus hoc æri incisum (cuius archetypum cala mo ab Goltzio notatum singulari beneficio imitandum dederat, et divulgandum) in grati animi signum D.D. Matham. Et brevibus tantum tabulis includere numen. In cælis sensere animæ, cantusq: cientes Ad nova pæanati coeunt spectacula fratres; Atq: iterum nato renovant præconia Christo. Schrevelius.
Translation
HG MADE IT. Iac. Matham, Sculptor That noble Syrian, not the last in the healing art, Bearing the mystical signs of the bull upon his brow, Fashioned a divine work and with learned tempering Of colors dared to set forth the sacred Countenances, To a man of proven integrity, D. Maximilian Laignier [etc.], Matham dedicates and presents this work of Goltzius, engraved on copper (the archetype of which, noted by the pen of Goltzius, he had given [him] to imitate and publish as a singular favor), as a sign of grateful spirit. And to enclose the divine within brief tablets. The souls in heaven perceived it, and summoning songs, The brethren gather for the new spectacles of the paean; And they renew praises again for the newborn Christ. Schrevelius.
Marsilio Ficino
Ficino's Neoplatonic theories on the 'divine madness' of the artist and the visual arts as a way to contemplate the divine are reflected in the 'Mystica' and 'Divinum opus' mentioned in the inscription.
Object
Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem
Engraving
religious
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
https://hdl.handle.net/21.12102/19bb81f4-3bf0-4805-4cc4-15f87d270296
Public domain
3829 × 5155 px
452050272def6649a5be82cd6057cbc8dedf0515
April 25, 2019
March 23, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.