Minerva

In 1590 Goltzius left Haarlem for Italy, and in 1591 he spent months in Rome drawing the ancient statues. Two decades later he put a memory of that journey into this canvas. Far off in the landscape behind the goddess stands the Colosseum. Minerva was the Roman goddess of war and of wisdom, and the objects at her feet speak for her role as patron of learning and the arts: books, a portfolio, a pen in its holder, a weaver's shuttle and a lute. Further back stands a man with a donkey's ears. He is King Midas, who in Ovid's story judged a music contest and preferred the rustic pipes of Pan to Apollo's lyre, so the offended god gave him ears to suit his taste. Goltzius placed him there as the goddess's opposite, a man with no judgement in matters of art. The canvas dates from 1611, the same year as its companion Mercury, and the two hang side by side.