Little Masters
Encyclopedia
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
. They specialized in very small finely detailed prints
Old master print
An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are...
, some no larger than a postage stamp. The leading members were Hans Sebald Beham
Hans Sebald Beham
Hans Sebald Beham was a German printmaker who did his best work as an engraver, and was also a designer of woodcuts and a painter and miniaturist...
, his brother Barthel
Barthel Beham
Barthel Beham was a German engraver, miniaturist and painter.The younger brother of Hans Sebald Beham, he was born into a family of artists in Nuremberg...
, and George Pencz, all from Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
, and Heinrich Aldegrever
Heinrich Aldegrever
Heinrich Aldegrever or Aldegraf was a German painter and engraver. He was one of the "Little Masters", the group of German artists making small old master prints in the generation after Dürer.-Biography:...
and Albrecht Altdorfer
Albrecht Altdorfer
Albrecht Altdorfer was a German painter, printmaker and architect of the Renaissance era.-Biography:Altdorfer was born in Regensburg or Altdorf around 1480....
. Many of the Little Masters' subjects were mythological or Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
stories, often treated erotically, or genre scenes of peasant life. The size and subject matter of the prints shows that they were designed for a market of collectors who would keep them in albums, of which a number have survived.
The earliest artist to make very small intricate engravings was Altdorfer in 1506–7, probably following the example of Italian niello
Niello
Niello is a black mixture of copper, silver, and lead sulphides, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal. It can be used for filling in designs cut from metal...
prints, although their size was in fact no smaller than the bottom end of the very cheap devotional woodcuts made throughout the 15th century. However Altdorfer's printmaking developed in different directions, though he continued to produce some small engravings until the 1520s, by which time the style had been taken up by the Nuremberg artists, the Beham brothers and their close friend Pencz. Hans Sebald Beham and Pencz continued to produce engravings until shortly before their deaths in 1550, which effectively ended the style; Barthel Beham had died in 1540. Barthel is generally considered the most inventive of the Nuremberg trio, but his brother Sebald was much more productive, with perhaps the finest technique, and also copied some of Barthel's prints after his death. Aldegrever was a convinced Lutheran who developed Anabaptist
Anabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
leanings, which perhaps led to him spending much of his time producing ornament prints with no human figures.
Their engraving style was based on the work of Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
master printmaker Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
, who was still living in the city until 1527, and in whose workshop Pencz at least may have trained, and the Italian Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi, also simply Marcantonio, was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists mainly of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figure in the rise of the reproductive print...
, with whom Barthel Beham is supposed to have worked in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Raimondi, and the exterior fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
friezes of Polidoro di Caravaggio, influenced their choice of subjects and compositional style, to which Northern themes of death (Death appears personified in many prints, as above) and humour are added. The prints of Hans Baldung Grien contain similar treatments of sexual themes.
Mughal era
The Mughal era is a historic period of the Mughal Empire in South Asia . It ran from the early 15th century to a point in the early 18th century when the Mughal Emperors' power had dwindled...
India, and their figurative compositions were copied in Limoges
Limoges
Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....
enamel
Vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...
and various other decorative media, from bronze plaques to stoneware pottery. In addition many of their prints were "ornament prints", consisting entirely of ornament in the Renaissance style, which as well as being collected were designed to be used as patterns for craftsmen in various media.
Minor members of the group were Jacob Binck
Jacob Binck
Jakob Binck , an old German engraver and painter, was born at Cologne between 1490 and 1504. From the earliest accounts of Bink, we must consider it probable that he was a pupil of Dürer, but this is by no means certain, while his early residence in Italy throws a doubt upon the supposition. He is...
and Hans Brosamer
Hans Brosamer
Hans Brosamer, an old German engraver, was born at Fulda about the year 1506. On account of the small size of his prints he is ranked amongwhat are called the Little Masters...
, and there are some prints by a "Master IB", named after his monogram
Monogram
A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a...
, who may be either Pencz, Sebald Beham, or a separate artist. Other artists who did some work on a similar small scale, but are not usually classified as part of the "Little Masters" group, include: Virgil Solis
Virgil Solis
Virgil Solis or Virgilius Solis , a member of a prolific family of artists, was a German draughtsman and printmaker in engraving, etching and woodcut who worked in Nuremberg. His prints were sold separately or formed the illustrations of books; many prints signed by him are probably by assistants...
, Matthias Zundt
Matthias Zündt
Matthias Zündt was a German engraver, born at Nuremberg. He worked with both the graver and point, and produced portraits, Scripture subjects, allegories, and crests. Brulliot mentions an etching with a mark supposed to be his; it represents a Vase with figures of Tritons, standing on sea-horses'...
, Jost Amman
Jost Amman
Jost Amman was a Swiss artist, celebrated chiefly for his woodcuts, done mainly for book illustrations....
, and Conrad Saldörfer in Germany, Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...
in Switzerland and England, and Dirk Vellert (in etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
) and "Master S" in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. The etched work of the Hopfer family is often similar in size and must have appealed to a similar market, as did the rather later work of the French printmaker Etienne Delaune
Étienne Delaune
Étienne Delaune, Delaulne, or De Laune, a French engraver, was born in Paris, or more probably at Orléans, in 1518. He commenced bis...
.
The term "Kleinmeister" was used of the Nuremberg Little Masters as early as 1679, by Joachim von Sandrart
Joachim von Sandrart
Joachim von Sandrart was a German Baroque art-historian and painter, active in Amsterdam during the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Sandrart was born in Frankfurt, but the family originated from Mons...
, and has been applied to other groups of artists, from the genre masters of the Dutch Golden Age
Dutch Golden Age
The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...
to a group of 6th-century BC Ancient Greek vase-painters.
Further reading
- Goddard, Stephen H. (ed); The World in Miniature: Engravings by the German Little Masters, 1500-1550, 1988, Spencer Museum of Art University of Kansas, ISBN 9780913689264
- Möseneder, Karl (ed); Zwischen Dürer und Raffael. Graphikserien Nürnberger Kleinmeister, Petersberg 2010, ISBN 9783865685711