Gluttony, from the Vices
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 10.3 × 6.2 cm (4 1/16 × 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
77411
Art Historical Context
Heinrich Aldegrever's *Gluttony, from the Vices* (1552 is a striking engraving from the Northern Renaissance, capturing one of the seven deadly sins in vivid moral allegory. Aldegrever, a German artist and goldsmith from Soest, was part of the "Little Masters"—engravers renowned for their masterful work on intimate scales. Created amid the Protestant Reformation, this print reflects the era's intense focus on personal piety and ethical conduct, using art to warn against excess through symbolic imagery typical of vice series popular in 16th-century Europe. Measuring just 10.3 × 6.2 cm on ivory...
About the Artist
Heinrich Aldegrever · 1502–1561
Heinrich Aldegrever, born in 1502 in Paderborn, Westphalia, to parents Herman and Katherine Trippenmeker—a family of clog-makers known by the dialect name Trippenmecker—emerged as a multifaceted artist in the German Renaissance. His early training remains undocumented, though he likely apprenticed in a Soest goldsmith's workshop after relocating there around 1525, where he joined the painters' gui...