The Revenge of the Sorcerer Virgil
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 1/16 × 1 7/8 in. (7.8 × 4.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Felix M. Warburg, 1920
Accession Number
20.64.16
Tags
Art Historical Context
Albrecht Altdorfer a pioneering figure of the German Renaissance and leader of the Danube School, *The Revenge of the Sorcer Virgil*, a delicate engraving capturing a dramatic moment from medieval legend. The Roman poet Virgil, mythologized as a powerful sorcerer, enacts his revenge after being humiliated—lowered in a basket from a tower by an emperor's daughter. This print (just 3 1/16 × 1 7/8 inches) showcases muscular male nudes in dynamic poses, emphasizing themes of power, trickery, and retribution popular in 16th-century folklore. Altdorfer's mastery of engraving—a meticulous intaglio t...
About the Artist
Albrecht Altdorfer · 1475–1538
Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538) was a German painter, printmaker, and draftsman who stands as one of the founders of landscape painting as an independent genre. Born in Regensburg or nearby Altdorf, he learned art from his father Ulrich, a painter and miniaturist. Altdorfer spent most of his life in Regensburg, becoming a citizen in 1505 and later serving as the city's official architect and a m...