Hendrik IV in boetekleed onder het balkon van paus Gregorius VII
Medium
etching
Dimensions
58; 96
About this artwork
collector's mark: Lugt 2228
Art Historical Context
Daniel Nikolaus Chodowie, a leading German printmaker of the late 18th century,fully captures a dramatic episode from medieval history in this 1790 etching, titled *Hendrik IV in boetekleed het balkon van pa Gregorius VII* ( IV in penitential garb the balcony of Pope Gregory). Measuring a compact 96mm by 58mm, the small-scale work exemplifies Chodowiecki's in rendering intricate narratives through etching—a technique where acid etches fine lines into a metal plate, enabling precise details and affordable reproduction for books and collections. The scene depicts the Humiliation of Canossa in 1...
About the Artist
Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki · 1726–1801
Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726–1801) was a German painter and printmaker of Polish-Huguenot descent who became the most celebrated graphic artist in 18th-century Germany. Born in Danzig (now Gdańsk), he created approximately 2,000 etchings that serve as an invaluable visual record of German bourgeois life during the Enlightenment. Largely self-taught, Chodowiecki moved to Berlin in 1743 and ach...