Minneapolis Institute of Art

La communion des Lutheriens dans l'Eglise des Minorites à Augsbourg

after Caterine Sperling Heckel; Engraver: Bernard Picart

Date

1732

Medium

Etching and engraving

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Catharina Heckel Sperling learned drawing from her father, Augsburg goldsmith Michael Heckel. A prodigy, she etched a booklet of fashion plates at age 11. She was self-taught as a painter of easel paintings and miniatures. In 1725, she married engraver Hieronymus Sperling, and together they spent the next few years making etched and engraved illustrations for a Bible published from 1731 to 1735, the same period in which the present church view appeared. Working at the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment, she made images intended to convey vast quantities of information with the greatest clarity and objectivity possible. In The Communion of the Lutherans she carefully depicted the church, the clothing, and the ceremony. This is not to say that she insisted on archeological accuracy; comparison to modern photographs of the church reveals that she made the sanctuary appear loftier than it is in reality. France, Europe

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