Two Shields with a Hare and a Moor's Head, Held by a Wild Man

1480·Engraving in black on ivory laid paper·Sheet: 7.8 × 7.8 cm (3 1/8 × 3 1/8 in.)

<p>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, alludes to a simpler time before the advent of civilization, when men were free to indulge all their appetites.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1480
Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: Sheet: 7.8 × 7.8 cm (3 1/8 × 3 1/8 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Martin Schongauer

Artist

Martin Schongauer

Painting

Martin Schongauer, also known as Martin Schön or Hübsch Martin by his contemporaries, was an Alsatian engraver and painter. He was the most important printmaker north of the Alps before Albrecht Dürer, a younger artist who collected his work. Schongauer is the first German painter to be a significant engraver, although he seems to have had the family background and training in goldsmithing which was usual for early engravers.

Colmar, France

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