The Letter B, from The Alphabet
1466–67
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet, trimmed within platemark: 13.7 × 11.3 cm (5 7/16 × 4 1/2 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
22653
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Before printing pictures from engraved copper plates developed as a practice, goldsmiths and other metalworkers were the only craftsmen to use sharp pointed tools to incise designs in metal, decorating armor, jewelry, and liturgical objects. The first designs to be filled with ink and pressed onto paper appeared in the Rhine Valley around 1430. Known only by the monogram that appears on some of his designs, the goldsmith Master E. S. became one of the most prolific engravers in Germany. This ra...
About the Artist
Master E.S. · 1450–1467
Master E.S. was a pioneering German engraver active in the middle decades of the fifteenth century, known only by the monogram with which he signed a number of his prints. His precise identity — name, birthplace, and biography — remains unknown, but his signed works, along with a larger group of prints attributed to him on stylistic grounds, place his activity primarily in the Upper Rhine region, ...