The Mocking of Ceres1610
This scene depicts Ceres, the Roman goddess of summer and agriculture, drinking water as she searches for her kidnapped daughter, Proserpina. A boy mocks her at left. More about this work
About this work
This scene depicts Ceres, the Roman goddess of summer and agriculture, drinking water as she searches for her kidnapped daughter, Proserpina. A boy mocks her at left. Hendrick Goudt made several engravings meant to reproduce the style of small, dark paintings of the period. Here, the plate is almost entirely covered with lines that shift in direction or density to create textures and forms. This type of dark composition influenced printmakers like Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch 1606–1669), who adapted the dark manner to etching.
Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
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.
Hendrik Goudt
Dutch, 1583–1648
Dutch Golden Age
Seventeenth-century painting from the Dutch Republic: still lifes, interiors, portraits and flat, wide skies.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Cleveland Museum of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1981.23
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Type
- Department
- Prints
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
