St. Stephanus Girandi

Art Historical Context

"St. Stephanus Gir" is a striking 17th-century engraving a collaborative effort attributed to Flemish engravers Conrad Lauwers and Herman Weyen, likely after a design by the French Baroque painter Laurent de La Hyre. Measuring 17 1/16 x 10 7/8 inches, this print captures the revered figure of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr amid tags evoking themes of male saints. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it entered the collection via the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund in 1953. Engravings like this one were pivotal in the Baroque era, a time when the Catholic Church used art to inspire devotion during the Counter-Reformation. The intaglio technique—incising lines into a metal plate with a burin—allowed for intricate details and tonal depth, enabling widespread dissemination of sacred imagery beyond original paintings. De La Hyre's elegant, classical style, blending French refinement with Flemish precision, shines through in the print's composition, making saintly narratives accessible to pilgrims and collectors alike. This artwork exemplifies how prints bridged elite patronage and popular piety, preserving ephemeral religious fervor in durable form. Visitors will appreciate its historical role in visualizing sainthood's enduring legacy.

About the Artist

Conrad Lauwers|Laurent de La Hyre|Herman Weyen (Flemish|French|Flemish) · 1632 |1606 |1600 –1685 |1656 |1672

Flemish, Antwerp, 1632–ca. 1685|French, Paris 1606–1656 Paris|Flemish, died Paris, 1672