Knowledge and the Seven Virtues

Date1539

Credit LineGift of Art History Department Fund

Dimensions1 9/16 x 1 in. (4 x 2.5 cm)

Object number2000.002.002

Label TextSebald Beham, a generation younger than Durer, grew up in Nuremberg where he would have been steeped in the older artist's influence. The success of Durer's Engraved Passion with its very small plates, spurred Beham to make even more diminutive works, many, as here, the size of postage stamps, but still engraved with great delicacy and particularity. Durer's choice of unusual subjects, both mythological and allegorical, was also followed by Beham.

Beham is known as one of the "Little Masters," a group of artists who specialized in small-scale engravings. He may have begun his career in Durer's workshop, and often adopted his compositions and formal techniques. Miniature engravings like these both responded to and promoted a taste for small-scale collectors' objects. The prints depict personifications of Knowledge, the three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope and Charity), and the four Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice). These robust female figures carry their traditional attributes. Prudence (2) is accompanied by the wise serpent, and looks into a mirror in order to know and regulate her own faults, while Temperance (8) carefully pours water into her wine. Behind Hope (6), the man confined to the stocks longs for his freedom. Knowledge (1) looks away from the books at her feet to the tiny figure of God in the upper right corner.
Exhibition HistoryRecent Acquisitions of Old Masters: Durer to Delacroix, Michael C. Carlos Museum, October 6, 2001 - January 28, 2002
Invention and Revival: Northern European Prints, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 12 - May 15, 2005
Published ReferencesMCCM Newsletter, September - November 2000.
MCCM Newsletter, December 2004 - February 2005.

ProvenancePurchased by MCCM from Falteri Grafica Antica e Moderna, Florence, Italy.

Status

Not on view

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