Bookplate of Hieronymous Baumgärtner
1522/40
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet, trimmed within platemark: 8.6 × 7 cm (3 7/16 × 2 13/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
77422
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The Nuremberg patrician and priest Hieronymous Baumgärtner was educated at the University of Wittenberg under Martin Luther and others, returning home a staunch Lutheran. His engraved ex libris insists on his erudition by quoting several types of memento mori imagery (the skull, hourglass, and clock), and mottos in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek commenting on the vagaries of time. A requisite addition, his central family coat of arms, includes a fleur-de-lis and a bird.
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...