Ceres seeking her Daughter

As a printmaker, Hendrick Goudt specialised in translating the paintings of his contemporary Adam Elsheimer, often painted on copper and celebrated for their astonishing light effects, into the print medium. Goudt was perhaps the first etcher and engraver to compose his plates out of areas of light and shade - as Rembrandt would later do, with very different means but perhaps inspired by Goudt's brilliant, contrast-rich prints. The present work is based on a small painting by Elsheimer, which once belonged to Peter Paul Rubens and is now in the Prado in Madrid (inv. no. P002181). It depicts an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses: Proserpina has been abducted Pluto, the God of the Underworld. Her mother Ceres, Goddess of the Harvest, on her search for her daughter, has arrived at the house of Hecuba and is offered a drink of water. A young boy, Stellio, observes Ceres drinking greedily from the jug and laughs at her. Enraged for being mocked by the child, the Goddess pours the rest of the water over him and turns him into a lizard.
The present impression is remarkable for the finest gradations of shading and the clarity of definition, even in the background and within the darkest areas and smallest details.