Fifteen Nude Children Dancing
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/16 × 6 1/2 in. (5.3 × 16.5 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
Accession Number
17.50.55
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the lively engraving *Fifteen Nude Children* from 1535, German artist Heinrich Aldegrever—often associated with the "Little Masters" of Northern Renaissance printmaking—captures a whimsical procession of playful figures. Likely inspired by or reproducing motifs from Italian engraver Marcantonio Raimondi, tiny sheet (just over 2 by 6 inches) brims with energy: nude children frolic in a frieze-like arrangement, some dancing gleefully while others play musical instruments, evoking the joyous spirit of Renaissance ornamentation. Engraving, Aldegrever's specialty, allowed for intricate lines an...
About the Artist
Heinrich Aldegrever|Marcantonio Raimondi · 1502–1561
Heinrich Aldegrever, born in 1502 in Paderborn, Westphalia, to parents Herman and Katherine Trippenmeker—a family of clog-makers known by the dialect name Trippenmecker—emerged as a multifaceted artist in the German Renaissance. His early training remains undocumented, though he likely apprenticed in a Soest goldsmith's workshop after relocating there around 1525, where he joined the painters' gui...