Pacientia [Patience] by Hans Sebald Beham

Engraving, 105 x 70 mm. Pauli 141, 4th state (of 6). Hollstein 141.

Impression of the 4th state (of 6) with a new horizontal hatching on the right shin-bone of Patience, but before further rework.

Very fine impression printed on laid paper, trimmed on or just outside the platemark. In perfect condition.

“During 1539-1541 Beham made several independent engravings of allegorical figures. They are always set in the near foreground with a few attributes surrounding them, and in this respect follow the format of contemporary bronze plaquettes of similar subjects and equally small dimensions, produced by Peter Flötner of Nuremberg”. (Giulia Bartrum, German Renaissance prints 1490-1550, no. 99, p. 109).

Beham engraved several allegorical figures, among which Melencolia, an engraving from 1539, directly inspired by Dürer’s 1514 engraved masterpiece, as well as Pacientia, in 1540.

Here Beham’s signature, engraved on a large stone tablet lying at the foot of the column on which Patience is sitting, takes up more space than in most of his other prints, which only feature his monogram in most instances.

Beham’s signature reads: sebaldus beham pictor noricus faciebat hsb: « Sebald Beham, a painter from Nuremberg, engraved [this print]. HSB »

This might be a reference to Dürer who signed his large Adam and Eve engraving with the words albert9 [albertus] durer noricus faciebat ad 1504, engraved onto a tablet hanging from a branch of the tree of knowledge.

Like Dürer, Hans Sebald Beham was from Nuremberg; he ran into serious trouble with the city, resulting in his banishment on two occasions, the first time for heresy, the second time for having plagiarised a work by Dürer.

Even though he had to renounce his Nuremberg citizenship in 1535 and became a citizen of Frankfurt in 1540, it is that origin that he chose to memorialise here.