Hendrik Goltzius was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 printmaker, draftsman

Drawing

Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...

, and painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism

Northern Mannerism

Northern Mannerism is the term in European art history for the versions of Mannerism practiced in the visual arts north of the Alps in the 16th and early 17th century...

, noted for his sophisticated technique and the "exuberance" of his compositions. According to A. Hyatt Mayor

A. Hyatt Mayor

A. Hyatt Mayor was an American art historian and curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a leading figure in the study of prints, both old master prints and popular prints....

, Goltzius "was the last professional engraver who drew with the authority of a good painter and the last who invented many pictures for others to copy". In middle age he also began to produce paintings.
Goltzius was born near Venlo

Venlo

Venlo is a municipality and a city in the southeastern Netherlands, next to the German border. It is situated in the province of Limburg.In 2001, the municipalities of Belfeld and Tegelen were merged into the municipality of Venlo. Tegelen was originally part of the Duchy of Jülich centuries ago,...

 in Bracht

Bracht

Bracht is the name of two localities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany:# Bracht, a municipality Schmallenberg in the district Hochsauerlandkreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany....

 or Millebrecht, a village then in the Duchy of Julich

Duchy of Jülich

The Duchy of Jülich comprised a state within the Holy Roman Empire from the 11th to the 18th centuries. The duchy lay left of the Rhine river between the Electorate of Cologne in the east and the Duchy of Limburg in the west. It had territories on both sides of the river Rur, around its capital...

, now in the municipality Brüggen

Brüggen

Brüggen is a municipality in the district of Viersen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated near the border with the Netherlands, on the river Schwalm, approx. 15 km south of Venlo and 20 km north-west of Mönchengladbach.-See also:...

 in North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

.