Job Conversing with His Friends
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 6.9 × 10.4 cm (2 3/4 × 4 1/8 in.); Sheet: 7 × 10.5 cm (2 13/16 × 4 3/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
77430
Art Historical Context
In the hushed galleries of the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings department, Hans Sebald Beham's *Job Conversing with His Friends* (1547) captivates with its intimate scale and intricate detail. This engraving, measuring just 6.9 × 10.4 cm, depicts a pivotal biblical scene from the Book of Job, where the afflicted patriarch engages in debate with his three comforters amid his trials of faith and suffering. Beham, a Nuremberg artist and one of the "Little Masters" of the Northern Renaissance, specialized in such diminutive yet masterful prints, blending religious narrative with hum...
About the Artist
Hans Sebald Beham · 1500–1550
Sebald Beham (1500-1550), often called Hans Sebald Beham, was a German painter and printmaker born in Nuremberg. He stands as the most important figure among the Kleinmeister (Little Masters), a group of German artists who created remarkably detailed prints on a diminutive scale in the generation following Albrecht Dürer. Beham's significance lies in his technical virtuosity and unprecedented pro...