Portrait of Bernt Knipperdolling, a leader of the Münster Anabaptists
Jan Muller Netherlandish
after Heinrich Aldegrever German
Publisher Clement de Jonghe Dutch
Not on view
At the end of the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth century, Dutch Mannerists turned their attention to the German master Albrecht Dürer and other northern Renaissance artists, creating a revival of interest in their works. Printmakers copied these earlier designs or made new compositions emulating the style of their predecessors. Muller’s Portrait of Jan van Leiden and its pair, a Portrait of Bernt Knipperdolling (accession no. 17.3.953), were part of this revival. They are copies in reverse of engravings by the German follower of Dürer, Heinrich Aldegrever. Like Dürer, Aldegrever portrayed important contemporary figures, such as these of two radical Anabaptists who led a rebellion in Münster between 1534 and 1535, which led tothe establishment of a communal sectarian government. Muller captures the intricate details of the sitters’ costume and features, as well Aldegrever’s delicate engraving technique.
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