Jan van Leyden
Medium
Engraving in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 32 × 23.2 cm (12 5/8 × 9 3/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
27939
Art Historical Context
Created in 1536 by the German printmaker Heinrich Aldegrever, this striking engraving captures the likeness of Jan van Leyden, the charismatic leader of the radical Anabaptist movement that briefly seized control of the German city of Münster. Aldegrever, often associated with the “Little Masters” group of engravers who specialized in small-scale, finely detailed prints, worked in the tradition of Albrecht Dürer. His precise line work and careful attention to costume and expression reveal both the sitter’s self-proclaimed royal status and the turbulent religious conflicts of the Reformation er...
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...