Alcon Killing the Snake

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Alcon Killing the Snake

Artist Hans Wechtlin German, 1480/85-ca. 1526

Date1541 (1548?)

Dimensions10 3/4 x 7 1/4 in. (27.3 x 18.4 cm)

MediumEngraving

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineFrederick B. and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund

Object number

1950.73

Not on View

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Works on Paper

Label TextWechtlin worked in Strassburg as a draftsman and printmaker. He is distinguished chiefly for his chiaroscuro woodblock prints (produced using several blocks, each inked with a different color to produce heightened effects of lights and darks in the final print). He is thought to be the first German artist to practice the technique, possibly inventing it. His woodcuts are extremely rare and very few survive in good condition. Alcon, in some accounts, was a skillful archer who killed a serpent that was attacking his son, without wounding the child. The story of Alcon of Crete freeing his son derives from Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica: “When you were a young boy a serpent pounced upon you from the branch of a tree and coiled around you fourfold with its glistening body. Leaning forward, your father, in a fearful stance, aimed an uncertain blow.”