(Hans) Sebald Beham

[A pair of C16th woodcuts from Beham's series "The Passion"]

[The Last Supper]
[Ecce Homo]

3.5 x 5 inches

Woodcut prints by (Hans) Sebald Beham; published in Nuremburg in 1535. Second state.

Two woodcuts (of eight] illustrating the Passion of Christ. The first six were cut in 1521 and 1522, with their dates above the monogram; the final two were published in 1535, when the first six were reissued with the dates removed. Sebald Beham (1500-1550) was an accomplished artist and engraver working in Germany in the first half of the Sixteenth Century. He originally worked in Nuremburg where he used the monogram HSP but moved to Frankfurt in the mid-1530s when he started identifying his prints with HSB. His output was prolific, and it is thought that he produced in excess of 1500 woodcuts and 252 engravings. As far as subject matter is concerned he specialised in religious, domestic, mythological and historical images, quite often with an erotic leaning. He worked in meticulous detail and many of his prints are no larger than a postage stamp. This factor gave him the reputation for being one of the leading "Little Masters" working alongside Albrecht Durer in the golden age of German printmaking.