Art Institute of Chicago

Alcon Slaying the Serpent

Hans Wechtlin, I

Date

1510–15

Medium

Chiaroscuro woodcut printed from two blocks in black and olive green on cream laid paper

Culture

Germany

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Hans Wechtlin was one of the earliest German printmakers to make color woodcuts. This classical subject exists in blue-gray impressions as well as the present olive-green version; the tone block would simply have been printed in a different color with the black key block. The story portrayed in this work, slightly obscure even during the Renaissance, was mentioned by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. The woodcut depicts the Cretan Alcon saving his son from strangulation by a serpent with his excellent archery skills. His writhing young child is reminiscent of the snake-wrapped boys in the more famous Laocöon sculpture unearthed in Rome only a few years earlier, in 1506.

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