Heinrich Aldegrever (1501-1555) Lot n° 4

Heinrich Aldegrever (1501-1555) - Creation of Eve / Description: The Power of Death/ Allegory of Original Sin and Death: The Creation of Eve; God at right standing behind the sleeping Adam, cutting open his side; from a series of eight engravings. 1541 / Dimensions: 7,60 x 4,80 cm Good contrasted impression in very good condition. On laid paper with tread margins, on plate border at left. / Literature: Literature: Michel Wolgemut, Painter, designer of woodcuts. At an early stage of his career he is thought to have assisted Hans Pleydenwurff (c. 1420-72) in Nuremberg. In 1473 he married Hans Pleydenwurff's widow, thereby inheriting this artist's workshop. Wolgemut taught Albrecht Dürer from 1486 to 1489. That Dürer held his master in high esteem is implied in a letter he wrote in 1506 from Venice to his friend Willibald Pirckheimer in Nuremberg, in which he recommends Wolgemut as a teacher for his younger brother Hans Dürer. Dürer also painted a portrait of Wolgemut in 1519. Wolgemut's stepson, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff (c. 1458-94), worked with him and by 1491 had become his partner. The Wolgemut workshop was the most active in Nuremberg during this period. Documented altarpieces for several churches. Together with Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, Wolgemut was responsible for the production of the woodblocks for Hartmann Schedel's 'Weltchronik' published in 1493 by Anton Koberger in Nuremberg (Text from Bartrum 1995). Bibliography: Rowlands 1993; Neudörfer, Nachrichten, pp. 128-30; Thieme-Becker, xxxvi, 1947, pp. 175ff.; xxxvii, 1950, p. 306 (for further literature); Gerd Betz, Der Nürnberger Maler Wolgemut und seine Werkstatt (typescript dissertation), Freiburg, 1955; Stange, ix, 1958, pp. 51-60; Bellm, Skizzenbuch; Bellm, Schatzbehalter, Austin, Nuremberg, pp. 92ff; Bartrum, BM 1995.A basic bibliography on Wolgemut is provided by Matthias Mende, Dürer-Bibliographie, Wiesbaden, 1971, nos 5808-30. Early literature on the prints is given in Campbell Dodgson, I, p. 241. A more recent discussion of Wolgemut, as well as Pleydenwurff, is in Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Nuremberg: A Renaissance City, 1500-1618, exh. cat., Austin, University of Texas, 1983, pp. 92ff. Engraving