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Philips Galle

The Parable of the Good Shepherd

Description

Maker

Philips Galle (Flemish, 1537-1612)
After Pieter Bruegel I (Flemish, b. 1525-1530, d. 1569)

Title

The Parable of the Good Shepherd

Year

1565

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

engraving

Supports

Dimensions

Plate/Image: 22.4 x 29.5 cm (8 13/16 x 11 5/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Verso:in pencil in LL:M.K.38/MK 38358; in LR:Van Bastelaer 122/c 23263; in LR corner:90/1#10In Plate--In LL:BRVEGHEL -IN-vEN-; In LC:Th. Galle exc. initialed on ax. LR:PG-F-; above lintel of

Marks: RISD Museum stamp in brown ink on verso

Identification

State

2nd of 4

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Works of Art Fund

Object Number

52.072

Type

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650

Renaissance engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy that are composed entirely of lines. Artists began using this intaglio process in Europe as early as 1430. This captivating catalogue focuses on the height of the medium, from 1480 to 1650, when engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to engraving technique as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks in other media. The Brilliant Line follows these visual transformations and offers new insight into the special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers. The three essays discuss how engraving’s restrictive materials and the physical process of engraving informed its visual language; the context for the spread of particular engraving styles throughout Europe; and the interests, knowledge, and skills that Renaissance viewers applied when viewing and comparing engravings by style or school.

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The Brilliant Line
Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650
Sep 18, 2009 – Jan 03, 2010

Label copy

Philips Galle was an engraver employed by the Antwerp print publisher Hieronymus Cock before striking out to run his own publishing house. His technique follows the broad and schematic style of most of Cock’s engravers.

Pieter Bruegel favored New Testament parables, in which he gave visual expression to Christ’s sometimes complex words. Here, he represented several episodes from the parable of the good shepherd found in the Gospel of John: at left are the thieves who enter the stable through its wall to steal the sheep; at the gate to the stable is Christ, embodying the metaphor, “I am the door.” Christ-as-shepherd gives his life for his flock, unlike the shepherd at upper right, who flees from his flock when the wolf appears. Such images involved the viewer in a series of moral questions about how he might be implicated in his salvation through his moral or ethical behavior.

Related Publications

Related Publications

  • Books

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650

Renaissance engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy that are composed entirely of lines. Artists began using this intaglio process in Europe as early as 1430. This captivating catalogue focuses on the height of the medium, from 1480 to 1650, when engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to engraving technique as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks in other media. The Brilliant Line follows these visual transformations and offers new insight into the special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers. The three essays discuss how engraving’s restrictive materials and the physical process of engraving informed its visual language; the context for the spread of particular engraving styles throughout Europe; and the interests, knowledge, and skills that Renaissance viewers applied when viewing and comparing engravings by style or school.

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Image use

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This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Philips Galle (Flemish, 1537-1612)
After Pieter Bruegel I (Flemish, b. 1525-1530, d. 1569)
The Parable of the Good Shepherd, 1565
Engraving on light weight cream paper
Plate/Image: 22.4 x 29.5 cm (8 13/16 x 11 5/8 inches)
Museum Works of Art Fund 52.072

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