Anonymous, German, 16th century

Anonymous, German, 16th century is a designation for an unidentified draftsman and printmaker active in the German Renaissance, whose surviving sheets range across pen and ink drawing, chalk studies, and woodcut. The subjects gathered here move between religious narrative, devotional image, and technical design, from the Vision of Saint Eustace and the Martyrdom of Saint Catherine to a table fountain and an anamorphic stag. This collection holds five works dated by the Met to 1520, drawn mostly in pen and brown or black ink over chalk, with brown and gray washes, alongside a single woodcut recorded as a later impression of the third state. Together they offer a compact view of drafting and print practice in early sixteenth-century Germany.

5 works in the collection · All public domain (CC0)

Copy of Luther as an Augustinian Friar, Half Length

1520 · Woodcut; third state of eight (Hollstein)

The Vision of Saint Eustace

16th century · Pen and brown and black ink, over traces of black chalk.

Design for a Table Fountain

16th century · Pen and brown ink and brown wash over black chalk

Anamorphic Drawing of a Stag

16th century (?) · Black chalk, on light-brown paper

The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine (early 16th century)

early 16th century · Pen and black ink, gray wash; framing line in pen and black ink