Frederik de Vries

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.