Ceres and Stellio

Interest in chiaroscuro had entered Dutch graphic art already before Rembrandt and was initially dealt with using other visual methods. In 1608-1611, Hendrick Goudt resided in Rome, where he collaborated with the widely-recognized painter Adam Elsheimer, whose paintings filled with contrasts of light and dark he greatly admired. Goudt transferred seven of these paintings into engravings. He accomplished this difficult task in a fashion that earned him well-deserved acclaim and his work was later amply imitated (e.g. Jan van de Velde II).