Rhea Silvia
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 13/16 × 3 15/16 in. (14.7 × 10 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Felix M. Warburg and his family, 1941
Accession Number
41.1.129
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the intricate engraving *Rhea Silvia* (1532), German artist Heinrich Aldegre captures a pivotal moment from Roman mythology. Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin and mother of the twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, is depicted in a nude, maternal pose with infants, evoking themes of divine intervention and fertility. Aldegrever, a figure among the "Little Masters" of the Northern Renaissance, specialized in small-scale prints that rivaled the finesse of larger paintings, blending classical antiquity with the era's meticulous detail and humanism. Created as an engraving on a modest sheet mea...
About the Artist
Heinrich Aldegrever · 1502–1561
Heinrich Aldegrever, born in 1502 in Paderborn, Westphalia, to parents Herman and Katherine Trippenmeker—a family of clog-makers known by the dialect name Trippenmecker—emerged as a multifaceted artist in the German Renaissance. His early training remains undocumented, though he likely apprenticed in a Soest goldsmith's workshop after relocating there around 1525, where he joined the painters' gui...