Three Medals with Coats of Arms
1401 to 1500
Medium
engraving
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.1102
Art Historical Context
Behold *Three Medals with Coats of Arms*, a delicate engraving by the German artist Sebald Beham, dating to the late 15th or early 16th century (circa 1401–1500). Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Rosen Collection within the Prints department (CG-E), this work the precision of Renaissance printmaking. Beham, a master of small-scalegravings known as one the "Little Masters," three intricately detailed medals adorned with heraldic emblems—symbols of lineage, power, and identity central to European nobility during this era. Engraving, the medium here, was revolutionary in Beham's time, all...
About the Artist
Sebald Beham · 1500–1550
Sebald Beham (1500–1550), a pioneering German printmaker and painter born in Nuremberg, emerged as one of the most prolific artists of the Northern Renaissance. The elder brother of fellow artist Barthel Beham, he grew up in a milieu steeped in artistic tradition, though details of his early training remain sparsely documented. Recorded as a journeyman painter (Malergeselle) by 1521 and a master w...