
Young Frederik de Vries lived with Hendrick Goltzius while his father, painter Dirck de Vries, was away working in Venice. It was almost unheard of at the time for a child to receive his own portrait, but Goltzius wanted to make this for Frederik's father. The print portrays the boy in the heroic pose of a falconer, a dove as his raptor. The dog, engraved with extraordinary detail, is Goltzius's own beloved spaniel. This level of precision was all the more remarkable, because Goltzius, at about a year old, burned his hands, causing his right hand to become disfigured.