Three-Masted Ship Steering to the Right
Master W with the Key
c. 1467
Medium
Engraving in black on buff laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet: 16.4 × 11.7 cm (6 1/2 × 4 5/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
84759
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This impressive bark (a kind of small ship) on roiling waves is part of a series of nine engravings of ships made by this unidentified master, who has been thought to be the goldsmith Willem vander Cruce, active in Bruges about 1465–90, where there was a major ship-building industry. Some of the prints in the Master W. with the Key’s ship series offer the earliest evidence of new technical advances developed in Bruges. The master is thought to have worked for the Dukes of Burgundy; these unpopul...