Battle for the Banner (copy)
early 16th century
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 15/16 × 12 3/8 in. (7.4 × 31.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. John H. Sichel, 1966
Accession Number
66.747.16
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Battle for the Banner ()**, an early 16th-century engraving Barthel Beham, captures the raw intensity of combat in a narrow, horizontal composition measuring just under 13 inches wide. Created as a copy—likely reproducing a design by another artist—this print depicts a fierce skirmish among nude male warriors vying for a fluttering banner, their muscular bodies twisting in dynamic poses amid clashing weapons. Beham, a Nuremberg engraver and member of the "Little Masters," was renowned for his meticulous technique, using fine lines to convey texture, motion, and anatomical precision on a smal...
About the Artist
Barthel Beham · 1502–1540
Barthel Beham (1502–1540), a pivotal figure in the German Renaissance, was born in Nuremberg into a family of artists. The younger brother of the renowned engraver Hans Sebald Beham, he honed his craft under the tutelage of his elder sibling and the master Albrecht Dürer, absorbing the precise techniques of engraving and painting that defined Nuremberg's vibrant artistic scene. Emerging as a prodi...