The Children's Bath
Medium
Engraving in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet: 10.9 × 13.7 cm (4 5/16 × 5 7/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
3789
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Albrecht Dürer and Sebald Beham likely knew Israhel van Meckenem’s earlier genre scene of seven children bathing, misbehaving, and playing around a large wooden tub, supervised by a bathmaid. Those artists’ related prints (Dürer's The Men’s Bath, 2009.133 and Beham's The Women’s Bath, 2010.518) take place in outdoor male and indoor female baths, respectively. All three celebrate different aspects of bathing culture, a relatively infrequent activity during the Renaissance. Though it has not been ...
About the Artist
Israhel van Meckenem, the younger
Israhel van Meckenem the Younger (c. 1440–1503) was a German goldsmith and engraver who became one of the most prolific printmakers of the fifteenth century. Born in Meckenheim near Bonn, he was trained by his father, Israhel van Meckenem the Elder, who was himself a goldsmith and engraver. The younger Israhel may also have worked in the workshop of the Master E.S., whose plates he later reworked ...