Letter Z: oogstende boeren

About this artwork

Prent afkomstig uit: Bibel, die gantze, das ist alle Bücher alts und news Testaments (...). Zürich: Johann Froschauer, 1556.

Art Historical Context

This charming initial letter "Z," measuring just 47 by 47 millimeters, comes from a 1556 German Bible printed in Zurich by Johann Froschauer. The woodcut design, credited to the circle of Hans Holbein the Younger, depicts farmers harvesting grain—a lively scene that fills the letter’s interior with rhythmic figures and sheaves of wheat. Though the artist remains anonymous, the composition reflects the lively, narrative style Holbein brought to book illustration in the decades before his death. Letterpress printing allowed such small, detailed woodcuts to be integrated directly into the text, ...