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The image shows a profile of a person's head and partial neck within a circular laurel wreath. The individual has distinct facial features, including a prominent nose and chin. The hairstyle is tight, wavy locks pulled back, and a laurel wreath crowns the head. The background is plain, with an inscription reading "IMP. CAESAR. TRAIANVS. AVG." Below the portrait are the initials "ISB" and the year "1546". The overall style resembles a classical engraving, featuring detailed line work and traditional iconography.

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Sebald Beham

German, 1500–1550

Trajan1546

engraving

Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington · 1943.3.1044

The Roman emperor Trajan appears in profile, crowned with laurel, within a circular wreath and inscribed with his imperial titles in Latin, as if on an ancient coin or medal. More about this work

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Format

Archival pigment inks on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, a 308 gsm cotton paper, with a white border.

Size

At this size the museum's file prints at 167 ppi: sharp at arm's length, a little softer than the smaller sizes up close.

Size
16 × 20 in · image 13¾ × 13¾
Paper
Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 308 gsm
Price
$56

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About this work

The Roman emperor Trajan appears in profile, crowned with laurel, within a circular wreath and inscribed with his imperial titles in Latin, as if on an ancient coin or medal. Sebald Beham, one of the so-called Little Masters of Nuremberg, specialised in tiny, exquisitely detailed engravings, and his images of emperors drew on the Roman coins that Renaissance collectors prized. He dated the plate 1546.

Written by Ochre Editions.

What you’re looking at

The image shows a profile of a person's head and partial neck within a circular laurel wreath. The individual has distinct facial features, including a prominent nose and chin. The hairstyle is tight, wavy locks pulled back, and a laurel wreath crowns the head. The background is plain, with an inscription reading "IMP. CAESAR. TRAIANVS. AVG." Below the portrait are the initials "ISB" and the year "1546". The overall style resembles a classical engraving, featuring detailed line work and traditional iconography.

Description from the National Gallery of Art.

How it was made

Engraving
Lines cut directly into a metal plate with a steel burin, which makes them swell and taper. It took years to master, and for centuries it was how paintings travelled as pictures.

Sebald Beham

German, 1500–1550

Sebald Beham trained in Nuremberg in the orbit of Dürer and was one of the “Little Masters”, engravers known for tiny, finely worked plates of biblical, mythological and peasant subjects. In 1525 he, his brother Barthel and Georg Pencz were tried and banished from the city as the “godless painters” for their radical religious views. He later settled in Frankfurt, where he worked prolifically on engravings, woodcuts and book illustrations.

Written by Ochre Editions.

See all 3 works by Sebald Beham

Rights and the museum’s record

Public domain. The National Gallery of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.

Object number
1943.3.1044
Credit
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
Type
Print
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