# Phaeton, from "The Four Disgracers"

**Hendrick Goltzius** (Dutch, 1558–1617)  
1588  
Engraving  
Diameter: 13 3/16 in. (33.5 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 53.601.338(5). [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/343581).

## About this work

Phaeton, son of the sun god, who lost control of his father’s chariot and was struck down by Jupiter, tumbles headlong through the air in a circular frame, his muscular body twisted in dramatic foreshortening. The print is one of the four ‘Disgracers’ engraved by Hendrick Goltzius in 1588 after designs by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, showing Tantalus, Icarus, Phaeton and Ixion, each punished for overreaching. The series became a showpiece of Haarlem Mannerism, delighting in exaggerated anatomy and impossible viewpoints.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Hendrick Goltzius made this in 1588, aged 30. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Engraving.** Lines cut directly into a metal plate with a steel burin, which makes them swell and taper. It took years to master, and for centuries it was how paintings travelled as pictures.

### [Hendrick Goltzius](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/hendrick-goltzius)

Dutch, 1558–1617; born in Mühlbracht; died in Haarlem

Goltzius was the outstanding Dutch engraver of his generation, despite a childhood injury that crippled his right hand. In Haarlem he joined Karel van Mander and Cornelis van Haarlem in promoting the muscular Mannerist style of Bartholomeus Spranger, engraving swelling, tapering lines of great virtuosity. A journey to Italy in 1590–91 turned him towards classical sculpture, as in his engravings of the Apollo Belvedere, and around 1600 he gave up engraving for painting.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Prints
- The artist was 30
- Century: 16th century
- Subjects: Male Nudes, Horses
- Colour: white
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1043.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1043/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/phaeton-from-the-four-disgracers-met-343581).