Intemperance, from Vice and Virtues

Art Historical Context

**Intemperance, from and Virtues** *Heinrich Aldegrever, 1528* Engraving, 3 1/4 × 2 1/2 in. (8.2 × 6.4 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917 Heinrich Aldegrever, a masterful German engraver of the Northern Renaissance, crafted this petite engraving in 1528 as part of his *Vice and Virtues*. Active during the early Reformation era in Soest, Aldegrever was one of the "Little Masters," renowned for their intricate small-scale prints that rivaled painting in detail. This work embodies the period's moral fervor, contrasting human vices like intemperance—excess in dri...

About the Artist

Heinrich Aldegrever · 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...