Two Shields with a Hare and a Moor's Head, Held by a Wild Man
1480/90
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 7.8 × 7.8 cm (3 1/8 × 3 1/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
4011
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Schongauer may have produced his ten heraldic shields in roundels as family crests for the middle classes rather than the nobility. The partially blank areas of the shields and the fanciful figures holding them suggest that the works were not exclusively made for families of high standing but could have been purchased individually and filled in with other family emblems to be used more widely. The depiction of this forest-dwelling wild man, wreathed in vines and clothed only in his own hair, all...
About the Artist
Martin Schongauer · 1435–1491
Martin Schongauer, born around 1450–1453 in Colmar, Alsace, emerged from a family of skilled artisans. The third of four or five sons of goldsmith Caspar Schongauer, who had relocated from Augsburg to Colmar around 1440, Martin was immersed in the goldsmith's trade from youth, likely receiving his initial training in his father's workshop—a common path for early engravers. He further honed his ski...