Faith

Like his near contemporary Dürer, Heinrich Aldegrever was apprenticed as a goldsmith and also worked as a painter. After visiting the Netherlands, from 1525 until his death, he worked in the Westphalian [German] town of Soest, where he produced about 300 engravings, including biblical scenes, antique subjects, allegories, gallant genre scenes, portraits and ornamental metalwork designs. His early work was influnced by Dürer's prints, and Aldegrever adapted Dürer's monogram. (See especially Aldegrever after Dürer,<em> St Christopher</em>, Te Papa 1869-0001-7). It is clear that he had a thorough knowledge of Italian art, which he would have learnt from Netherlandish and German artists who had visited Italy and then returned to northern Europe.

<em>Faith</em> is one of several images of virtues and vices that Aldegrever made early in his career, all of which share the same dimensions and format. A half-length female figure fills the foreground plane, and the artist's monogram and date appear in the background. Faith, one of the three theological virtues, was traditionally depicted as a full-length female figure, sometimes winged, either clothed or nude, holding a crucifix, chalice and host, or sometimes a book. Lucas van Leyden, for example, depicted her as a heroic seated nude with books at her feet and crowned by an angel.

Aldegrever's <em>Faith</em> departs from the usual formula in some interesting ways. She is shown wearing a sumptuous and fashionable contemporary gown, and she is bedecked with jewels and a crown. While she holds her traditional attribute of the chalice and host in one hand, she grasps the foot of a full-scale cross, not a crucifix. Her head is level with the crossed and nailed feet of Christ. It seems that Aldegrever has conflated the traditional depiction of Faith with depictions of the Mary Magdalene, who is often shown grasping the foot of the cross in scenes of the Crucifixion. The figure's luxuriant hair may also be a reference to the moment of the Mary Magdalene's conversion, when she washed Christ's feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.

Source: David Maskill, 'Heinrich Aldegrever 1502-c. 1558 Germany', in <em>Art at Te Papa</em>, edited by William McAloon (Wellington: Te Papa Press, 2009), 28.