Portret van een bebaarde man

A small oval engraving depicting a middle-aged man with curly hair and a trim, pointed beard in a three-quarter view. He is dressed in a fashionable 16th-century ruff and a buttoned doublet, set against a dense cross-hatched background. The frame consists of a simple band inscribed with a Dutch motto in calligraphic script.

The inscription 'Vriheit maect blyheit' (Freedom brings happiness) is the personal motto of Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert, a pivotal humanist figure and mentor to Goltzius. Coornhert's philosophy of 'Spiritualism' emphasized internal reason and moral perfectibility over external dogma, drawing heavily from Neoplatonic and Neostoic traditions.