Ornamental Design for Knife Handle
c. 1588
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet, trimmed within platemark: 9 × 2.2 cm (3 9/16 × 7/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
224014
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
These elegant knife handles (2014.1123 and 2014.1125) are a paired set printed from the same plate. Perhaps supplying front and back decorations for the same handle, both images include a nude female figure. The piece on the right depicts the ancient Roman figure of Lucretia, who was said to have committed suicide after being raped because she could not bear the dishonor brought on her family. Here she uses a blade to pierce her breast.
About the Artist
Theodor de Bry · 1528–1598
Theodor de Bry was born in 1528 in Liège, in what is now Belgium, into a family of jewelers and engravers. Trained as a goldsmith and copper-plate engraver — skills he refined under his grandfather, Thiry de Bry the Elder — he worked across several European cities before religious persecution forced him into exile. As a Protestant living under Spanish rule in the Southern Netherlands, de Bry was s...