How to Draw Hands - Hendrick Goltzius

Hendrick Goltzius 1558-1617 - Study of a Hand.

The page Handen in de Beeldende Kunst has this note about the work: Hendrick Goltzius 1558-1617 is een bijzonder kunstenaar gebleken niet alleen omdat hij deze bijzondere handenstudie heeft gemaakt, maar omdat hij als een der eersten gebruik heeft gemaakt van het perspectief van een vallende man in een lege ruimte. (Hendrick Goltzius 1558-1617 is an artist particularly worth seeing not only because he has made a special study of a hand, but because he is one of the first use of the perspective of a man falling into an empty space.) See my other post Foreshortening for pictures of he figure in perspective, falling through space.



Another drawing of hands Four Studies of Hands is at The Metropolitan Museum's website.




A print of his, Perseus and Andromeda is for sale on Ebay. This is a portion of the extensive note about him by the seller:

Goltzius's engravings from this period, 1585 to 1590, epitomise the conscious avoidance of naturalism and the deliberate over-refinement of this anti-classical approach. By decade's end a lessening of his 'Sprangerism' is evident in Goltzius's engravings and drawings, a tendency that was reinforced by his journey to Italy. In January 1591, he arrived in Rome, where he sketched after Raphael, Michelangelo, and Polidoro da Caravaggio, and to an even greater degree from antiquities. Goltzius's colourful portrait drawings made on his way to and from Italy are of great beauty and significance as well. He returned to Haarlem by the end of 1591. With the assistance of his many followers, Goltzius throughout the 1590s experienced much success as an engraver and publisher, and his activity with chiaroscuro woodcuts was of consequence as well. By 1600 he enjoyed a far-reaching reputation as Europe's pre-eminent graphic artist.

Hendrick Goltzius on Ebay

The DeLind Gallery of Fine Art in Milwaukee Wisconsin has another print Rhadamanthus and Prosperine. Check out the site, they have a show entirely of figurative work in January and February.



Bryn Mawr College has a copy of his print of The Apollo Belvedere.

Another print by a different artist, Marcantonio Raimondi, at the Metropolitan Museum.


Original scupture.














Drawing Dynamic Hands (Practical Art Books)


Draw Real Hands! (Discover Drawing Series)

Drawing Hands and Feet: Form, Proportions, Gestures and Actions (The Art of Drawing)

Perseus and Andromeda, by Henrick Goltzius.