print
- Museum number
- 1882,0812.326
- Description
-
The Penance of St John Chrysostom; nude whole-length female figure seen from behind, reclining in foreground, the head facing right; a child standing beside her; landscape background with the saint crawling on all fours in left middle distance.
Engraving
- Production date
- 1525-1550
- Dimensions
-
Height: 55 millimetres
-
Width: 78 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- This is an impression of the third state.
The plate was initially engraved by Barthel Beham (c.1525-8) and passed to his brother's workshop following Barthel's death in 1540. It was previously unclear which of the eight known states is the first showing Sebald's reworking as only the seventh and eighth state bear Sebald's monogram.
New Hollstein (Barthel Beham 12) recently proposed to follow Pauli's opinion (Pauli 1901, 70) according to which states IV-VIII are altered by Sebald Beham.
BM keeps impressions of the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth state, as well as of Copy 70 d (referenced as such in Pauli, not in New Hollstein Bartel Beham 12).
See :
State IV (1853,0709.80 and 1895,0915.385)
State V (1883,1110.487)
State VII (1883,1110.488)
State VIII (1853,0709.81 and 1895,0915.386)
Copies after later states by Sebald Beham (1875,0410.162 and Gg,4I.17)
The female figure in the foreground is a reverse copy after Agostino Veneziano (Bartsch 410).
The depiction of the Penance of St John Chrysostom is based on a late medieval legend according to which the hermit saint had seduced a girl. Following the birth of a child, he killed both mother and offspring. The saint was subsequently filled with such remorse that he could not look up at the sky and hence crawled on all fours until the newborn son of a queen pardoned him. Mother and child were then restored to life.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1882
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1882,0812.326