St. Mark
1615–42
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 5/16 x 7 5/16 in. (13.5 x 18.5cm) Plate: 4 9/16 x 6 11/16 in. (11.6 x 17cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928
Accession Number
28.91.24
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold *St. Mark*, a delicate etching by the French artist Pierre Brébiette, created sometime between 1615 and 1642. This intimate print captures the evangelist Saint Mark, one of the four Gospel authors in Christian tradition, often depicted with his symbolic lion—a fierce yet protective emblem of his apostolic strength and divine inspiration. Measuring just over 5 by 7 inches, the sheet invites close contemplation, revealing Brébiette's skill in rendering sacred figures with a sense of quiet reverence. Etching, the medium here, was a revolutionary intaglio technique in the early 17th centur...
About the Artist
Pierre Brebiette · 1598–1642
Pierre Brébiette (c. 1598–c. 1642) was a French painter and etcher whose elegant, sensuous treatment of classical mythology and allegory earned him a significant reputation in early seventeenth-century Paris. Born in Mantes-sur-Seine, Brébiette traveled to Italy as a young man and lived and worked in Rome from around 1617 to approximately 1625, absorbing the influences of ancient sculpture, Renais...