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Artistic Splendor: Significant Works from the Thrivent Art Collection,

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Sculpture by late renowned artist Richard Hunt featured outside Thrivent's downtown Minneapolis office.
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Photo by Robert Fogt

Hendrick Goltzius
Dutch, 1558-1617
The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1598-1600
Engraving

Gentle, illuminated faces gaze on the Christ child. Light emanates from the candle held in Joseph’s outstretched arm, casting a soft glow upon this doting audience. Mary’s quiet pride and the shepherds’ joyful delight are remarkably realistic and animated. We cannot see the Christ child, but he is undoubtably the object of their devotion. This artwork, made by virtuoso engraver Hendrik Goltzius, remains unfinished. Goltzius was a significant figure of Dutch printmaking and publishing. Internationally acclaimed, he ran a successful business publishing works by contemporary artists, and training the next generation of Netherlandish printmakers. The unfinished state of this engraving heightens the emotion, and highlights the printmaker’s gift of creating meticulous line and inventive use of space. It has become an icon of masterful Northern European engraving.