The Good Samaritan Placing the Traveler on a Mule
Medium
etching
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.229
Art Historical Context
In the National Gallery of Art's Rosen Collection, Heinrich Aldegrever's 1554 etching *The Good Samaritan Placing the Traveler a Mule* captures a pivotal moment from the New Testament parable in Luke 10:25-37. Here, the compassionate Samaritan gently lifts the beaten traveler onto a mule after aiding him, embodying Christian virtues of mercy and neighborly love amid a society divided by prejudice. Aldegrever, a prominent German artist of the Northern Renaissance and one of the "Little Masters," specialized in such intricate small-scale prints that brought moral and biblical narratives to a wid...
About the Artist
Heinrich Aldegrever · 1502–1561
Heinrich Aldegrever, born in 1502 in Paderborn, Westphalia, to parents Herman and Katherine Trippenmeker—a family of clog-makers known by the dialect name Trippenmecker—emerged as a multifaceted artist in the German Renaissance. His early training remains undocumented, though he likely apprenticed in a Soest goldsmith's workshop after relocating there around 1525, where he joined the painters' gui...