Art Institute of Chicago
Ornament With Flower and Eight Wild Folk
Israhel van Meckenem the YoungerLinkedCulture matchlcp-05aec119625d
- Date
- 1490/1500
- Medium
- Engraving in black on cream laid paper
- Culture
- Germany
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 3818
Ornament prints with mischievous tiny figures were in such demand in late-15th- and early-16th-century Europe that engravers like Israhel van Meckenem frequently borrowed imagery and entire compositions from other artists. The flower stalk that the naked wild men and women scale comes from a print by an earlier artist, the Master E. S. This print bears an inscription that translates to “The noble bees draw honey from the beautiful flower; from this one however, the frivolous vermin extract a stronger potion.” The ripe blossom thus symbolizes sexual consummation, and the print simultaneously tempts and warns the viewer about “the birds and bees.”
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300041273
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