Ornament With Flower and Eight Wild Folk
1490/1500
Medium
Engraving in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
20.5 × 13.6 cm (8 1/8 × 5 3/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
3818
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Ornament prints with mischievous tiny figures were in such demand in late-15th- and early-16th-century Europe that engravers like Israhel van Meckenem frequently borrowed imagery and entire compositions from other artists. The flower stalk that the naked wild men and women scale comes from a print by an earlier artist, the Master E. S. This print bears an inscription that translates to “The noble bees draw honey from the beautiful flower; from this one however, the frivolous vermin extract a str...
About the Artist
Israhel van Meckenem, the younger
Israhel van Meckenem the Younger (c. 1440–1503) was a German goldsmith and engraver who became one of the most prolific printmakers of the fifteenth century. Born in Meckenheim near Bonn, he was trained by his father, Israhel van Meckenem the Elder, who was himself a goldsmith and engraver. The younger Israhel may also have worked in the workshop of the Master E.S., whose plates he later reworked ...