Jael and Sisera
1520–25
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 15/16 x 3 13/16 in. (12.6 x 9.7 cm) Block: 4 13/16 x 3 11/16 in. (12.3 x 9.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Felix M. Warburg, 1920
Accession Number
20.64.26
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the intimate woodcut *Jael and Sisera* (ca. 1520–25), Albrecht Altdor captures a pivotal biblical moment from the Book of Judges. The German Renaissance master, a leader of the Danube School, depicts the heroic Israelite woman Jael driving a tent peg through the skull of the sleeping Canaanite general Sisera with a hammer—fulfilling the prophetess Deborah's vow after Sisera's army was defeated. This dramatic scene, rendered on a tiny sheet just under 5 by 4 inches, underscores themes of divine justice and female empowerment that resonated in early 16th-century Europe amid religious upheaval...
About the Artist
Albrecht Altdorfer · 1475–1538
Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538) was a German painter, printmaker, and draftsman who stands as one of the founders of landscape painting as an independent genre. Born in Regensburg or nearby Altdorf, he learned art from his father Ulrich, a painter and miniaturist. Altdorfer spent most of his life in Regensburg, becoming a citizen in 1505 and later serving as the city's official architect and a m...