Pyramus and Thisbe

Art Historical Context

Heinrich Aldegre's *Pyramus and This* (ca. 1529) is a delicate engraving capturing the tragic climax of the ancient lovers' tale from Ovid's *Metoses*. Pyramus, mistaking Thisbe's bloodied veil for her death, falls on his sword in despair, while Thisbe arrives too late, echoing timeless themes of forbidden love and fatal misunderstanding—much like a Renaissance precursor to Romeo and Juliet. Rendered on a tiny sheet just 2 3/16 inches (5.5 cm), this print exemplifies the "Little Masters," a group of Northern engravers famed for their virtuoso miniatures packed with intricate detail. As a German artist from Soest, Aldegrever blended goldsmith precision with the influence of Albrecht Dürer, mastering engraving's fine lines to evoke emotion and texture in black-and-white. This intaglio technique, incised into a copper plate, allowed for multiple impressions, democratizing classical mythology for 16th-century collectors across Europe. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1943), it highlights prints' role in the Northern Renaissance, bridging antiquity with emerging humanism. Its cultural resonance lies in exploring love's perils amid death's shadow, tagged with motifs of men, women, and mortality. A gem for visitors, it invites close inspection to uncover Aldegrever's masterful storytelling in miniature.

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...