Saint John, from The Four Evangelists
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 3/4 × 3 1/16 in. (12 × 7.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Edwin De T. Bechtel, 1949
Accession Number
49.132.64
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold *Saint John, from The Four Evangelists*, a engraving created in 1539, attributed to the German Renaissance artist Heinrich Aldegre, with possible involvement from fellow engraver Georg Penc. Measuring just 4 3/4 × 3 1/16 inches, this intimate print exemplifies the "Little Masters"—printmakers renowned for their masterful work on a tiny scale during the Northern Renaissance. Aldegre, a goldsmith-turned-engraver from Soest, was a key figure in producing affordable, reproducible religious imagery amid the Protestant Reformation, when evangelists like John symbolized the authority of script...
About the Artist
Heinrich Aldegrever|Georg Pencz · 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...