id: 121194 accession number: 1942.1070 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.1070 updated: 2022-09-22 09:31:48.444000 Adoration of the Magi, 1482. Martin Schongauer (German, c.1450–1491). Engraving; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 1942.1070 title: Adoration of the Magi title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1482 creation date earliest: 1482 creation date latest: 1482 current location: creditline: Dudley P. Allen Fund copyright: --- culture: Germany, 15th century technique: engraving department: Prints collection: PR - Engraving type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: Lehrs V.56.6 --- CREATORS * Martin Schongauer (German, c.1450–1491) - artist Martin Schongauer (ca. 1450-53, Colmar - 2 February 1491, Breisach) was one of the most skilled and influential graphic artists of Europe in the last quarter of the 15h century. Trained both as an engraver and as a painter, Schongauer started his apprenticeship under his father Caspar Schongauer, a goldsmith from Augsburg. In 1465, he matriculated at the University of Leipzig. After one year, he left his studies, and came back to Colmar. There, he was trained under the painter Caspar Isenmann, between 1466 and 1469. Schongauer later traveled down to the Rhine, Cologne, Burgundy, the Netherlands, and he likely visited Spain. In 1489, he became a citizen of Breisach, where he died probably of the plague in 1491. Only a few of Schongauer's paintings survive. Among these is the Madonna in the Rose Garden for the Church of Saint Martin in Colmar (1473), which betrays Schongauer's admiration for the works by the Netherlandish painter Roger Van der Weyden. The bulk of Schongauer's engravings is more conspicuous: 116 prints, none of them dated, but all marked by his monogram M+S. Characterized by exquisite cross-hatching and impeccable craftsmanship, Schongauer's engravings were widely imitated by the German printmakers Ishrael van Meckenem and Albrecht Durer, as well as by Italian artists, such as Cristoforo Robetta and Nicoletto da Modena. --- measurements: state of the work: II/III edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Sacred and Profane in Late Gothic Prints opening date: 1987-06-02T04:00:00 Sacred and Profane in Late Gothic Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 2-August 2, 1987). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: Late medieval depictions of the adoration of the magi such as this often depicted the third magi as a black African as seen here. digital description: The print belongs to a set of four engravings considered to be an incomplete series of episodes of the Life of the Virgin, which also includes the Nativity (1939.448), The Flight into Egypt (1954.260), and The Death of the Virgin (1956.744). Here, Martin Schongauer portrayed the visit of the three magi and their long retinue as witnesses to the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ as recounted in the biblical book of Matthew. The Virgin Mary is seated in front of the entrance of a stable made up from the ruins of a building. She holds the Christ child on her lap and hands him a box containing gold, the gift from the oldest of the three Kings, Melchior, who is kneeling in front of them. Behind Melchior are the other two Kings, Caspar and Balthazar, who offer a censer in the shape of a Gothic monstrance and a goblet of myrrh, respectively. At the top of the roof of the stable, the star of Bethlehem blazes. wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.1070/1942.1070_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.1070/1942.1070_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.1070/1942.1070_full.tif