The Dragon devouring the Companions of Cadmus

Hendrick Goltzius is considered the greatest engraver since Albrecht Dürer and arguably even exceeded him in sheer technical virtuosity, which is particularly evident in this print in the rippling muscles of the dragon's victim. Goltzius seems to delight in the sheer brutality of the scene, as the dragon bites off the face of the hapless fighter. With all its gory detail, such as the severed head in the foreground and the strewn-about skulls, bones and body parts, the print is reminiscent and stands in the tradition of Vittore Carpaccio's much earlier painting of Saint George and the Dragon at the Scuola degli Schiavoni in Venice. Goltzius's composition is based on the painting by Cornelis van Haarlem now in the collection of the National Gallery, London.