Shield with Swan Held by Woman
1470–1491
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 2 15/16 × 2 15/16 in. (7.5 × 7.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Henry Walters, by exchange, 1963
Accession Number
63.591
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold the exquisite *Shield with Swan Held by Woman*, a gem of late 15th-century printmaking by Martin Schong, created between 1470 and 1491. This tiny engraving, measuring just under 3 inches square, captures a graceful female figure cradling a heraldic shield adorned with a swan. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Drawings and Prints department, it exemplifies the intricate detail possible in this revolutionary medium. Schongauer, a German artist from Colmar, was a master engraver whose precise burin work—incising lines into copper plates for inking and printing—bridged the Gothic and...
About the Artist
Martin Schongauer · 1435–1491
Martin Schongauer, born around 1450–1453 in Colmar, Alsace, emerged from a family of skilled artisans. The third of four or five sons of goldsmith Caspar Schongauer, who had relocated from Augsburg to Colmar around 1440, Martin was immersed in the goldsmith's trade from youth, likely receiving his initial training in his father's workshop—a common path for early engravers. He further honed his ski...