Two Torch-Bearers, from "The Large Wedding Dancers"
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 11/16 × 3 1/16 in. (11.9 × 7.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Grace M. Pugh, 1985
Accession Number
1986.1180.8
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold *Two Torch-Bearers a delicate 1538 engraving by Heinrich Aldegrever, one of the "Little" of the Northern Renaissance. This German artist, active in Soest, Westphalia, was renowned for his intricate small-scale prints that captured everyday life with remarkable precision. Part of the series *The Large Wedding D*, this sheet depicts two men hoisting flaming torches aloft, evoking the lively chaos of a festive wedding procession—likely a peasant celebration lit firelight in the dim hours of night. Aldegrever's mastery shines in the engraving medium, where he used fine burin lines to rende...
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...