St. Paul standing under an overgrown arch, his left foot poised upon a rock, his right hand grasping a scroll, from "Christ and the Twelve Apostles"
1545
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 7 13/16 x 3 5/8 in. (19.8 x 9.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.713
Tags
Art Historical Context
In this delicate 1545 engraving by Flemish artist Lambert Suavius, Saint Paul stands thoughtfully beneath an overgrown archway, his left foot resting on a rock symbolizing steadfast faith, while his right hand clutches a scroll representing his Epistles. Titled *St. Paul standing under overgrown arch, his left poised upon a rock, right hand grasping a scroll it forms part of Suavius' series *Christ and the Twelve*, a set of prints that brought sacred figures into intimate, devotional formats for 16th-century viewers. Suavius, active during the Northern Renaissance, mastered engraving—a precis...
About the Artist
Lambert Suavius · 1510–1576
Lambert Suavius (c.1510–c.1574/76), whose Flemish family name was Zutman, was born in Liège, in the southern Netherlands. He was the son of an episcopal goldsmith, Henri Zutman, and from his father's craft environment he inherited a training in the precise handling of metal and an appreciation for fine detail work. He became closely associated with his brother-in-law Lambert Lombard, the leading a...