Little Masters
also: Kleinmeister
The Little Masters (Kleinmeister) were a group of German printmakers working in the first half of the sixteenth century, chiefly in engraving. They specialized in very small, finely detailed prints - some no larger than a postage stamp - packed with figures and ornament. The leading names were the Nuremberg artists Hans Sebald Beham, his brother Barthel and Georg Pencz, together with Heinrich Aldegrever and Albrecht Altdorfer, who cut the earliest tiny plates around 1506. Their engraving style descends from Albrecht Dürer and the Italian Marcantonio Raimondi; subjects run from mythological and Old Testament scenes, often erotic, to peasant genre humor and pure Renaissance ornament, while devotional imagery is conspicuously rare. The prints were made for collectors' albums and as pattern books for craftsmen, and were copied as far afield as Mughal India; the style ended with the deaths of Beham and Pencz in 1550.
Defining characteristics
- Extremely small plates - some no larger than a postage stamp
- Meticulous engraving line holding dense detail at miniature scale
- Mythological and Old Testament subjects with an erotic, sometimes bawdy edge
- Death personified recurring as a motif across the group's prints
- Peasant genre scenes and humorous tableaux beside pure ornament prints
- Renaissance strapwork and ornamental designs usable as patterns for craftsmen
Key figures
- Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550) — The most productive Little Master, with perhaps the finest engraving technique
- Barthel Beham (1502-1540) — Generally judged the most inventive of the Nuremberg trio
- Georg Pencz (c. 1500-1550) — Nuremberg engraver, possibly trained in Dürer's workshop
- Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538) — Cut the earliest very small intricate engravings around 1506-7
Example works
- Death and the Standing Nude — Hans Sebald Beham (1547)
- Genius on a Globe Floating in the Air — Barthel Beham (1520)
Sources
- Little Masters - Wikipedia encyclopedia