Sacred and Secular: Israhel van Meckenem & Early German Engraving

Israhel van Meckenem (c. 1445–1503) was a German copperplate printmaker active in the lower reaches of the Rhine River from the latter half of the 15th century through the beginning of the 16th century. While he produced numerous copies of the works of such popular artists of the day as Martin Shongauer and Albrecht Dürer, he also began to experiment with new techniques earlier than others in the field. He used various strategies to market his works, and even today more than 500 to 600 works are known from what must have been a massive lifetime oeuvre.

The majority of van Meckenem’s works are on Christian themes, thus alluding to the importance of faith in people’s lives. Such works as The Mass of St. Gregory, which states that those who pray in front of a holy image are spared 2,000 years of atoning for their sins in purgatory, include elements of the “secular” in the religious life of the day. German printmakers of the day took up non-Christian themes, something that was still rare in paintings. Van Meckenem also included elements of humor and satire in his works, such as the tactics found in the battle of the sexes and reversals of the human/animal power dynamic.

This exhibition features more than 100 works, ranging from prints to paintings and decorative arts, thanks in part to the cooperation of the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München and the British Museum. The exhibition will allow visitors to not only examine the prints made by van Meckenem during the transition from the Medieval period to the Renaissance, a time when the sacred and the profane mingled, it will also allow a consideration of the development and reception of early period copperplate engravings, their relationship with decorative arts, the question of copy and original, and how the society of the day was reflected in artworks.