Joseph lowered into a well by his brothers, from the series 'The Story of Joseph'
1546
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 4 5/16 x 2 15/16 in. (11 x 7.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.762.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the gripping engraving *Joseph Lowered into a Well by Brothers* (1546), German Renaissance artist Georg Pencz a pivotal moment from the biblical Book of Genesis. Part of his narrative series *The Story of*, the print depicts the jealous brothers casting their favored sibling into a dry well a dramatic prelude to his enslavement and eventual rise in Egypt. Pencz, a master of the Nuremberg "Little Masters" known for their exquisite small-scale prints, draws from the Old Testament to explore themes of betrayal, fate, and divine providence—resonating deeply in the 16th-century Protestant Reform...
About the Artist
Georg Pencz · 1490–1550
Comment on works: Religious; History; Portraits