Wedding Dancers

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Wedding Dancers

Artist Hans Sebald Beham German, 1500-1550

Date1546

DimensionsH: 1 15/16 in. (4.9 cm); W: 2 13/16 in. (7.1 cm)

MediumEngraving.

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Carl B. Spitzer

Object number

1938.57

Not on View

Collections

Works on Paper

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Renaissance Prints: Fable, Faith and Folk, Oct. 16-Dec. 16, 1958.

Toledo Museum of Art, Storytelling in Miniature, October 7, 2011-March 4, 2012.

Toledo Museum of Art, In Motion: Dance and Performance in Art, September 18, 2015- January 3, 2016.

Label TextThis print is the fourth image in a series of 10 engravings. The first six images in the set each show two active couples, often dancing. Above each couple is a name based on one of the twelve months. Inscribed above the dancing couple on the left is Jacob Newmon (Jacob July), and above the walking pair on the right is Laurencius Augstmon (Laurencius August). The remaining four prints in the set show groups of people feasting, fighting, love-making, and starting over again at the New Year. Regardless of the activity, the depiction of peasants enjoying a brief period of frivolity has been interpreted as favorable and sympathetic to a group that was often maligned. Only 21 years before this print was engraved, the Peasants’ War in Germany, a popular uprising, resulted in the death of over 100,000.