Impossibility, 1549

  • Hans Sebald Beham, German, 1500-1550

Engraving printed in black ink on laid paper

  • Sheet (trimmed within plate mark): 3 1/4 × 2 inches (8.3 × 5.1 cm)

Gift of Mrs. James E. Scripps

09.1S120

Department

Prints, Drawings & Photographs

Signed and dated, in plate, lower right: 1549 | [artist's monogram]

Stamp, verso: Scripps 1885 (Lugt Suppl. 2357a) [date added in ink to the stamp]

Inscribed, in plate, center of image: IMPOSSIBILE. Inscribed, vertically, upper right edge: NIMENT VNDER STESICH GROSER DING. | DIE IM ZV THVN VNMVGLICH SINDT.

(H. Wunderlich and Co., New York, New York, USA)

Mrs. James E. Scripps (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

1909-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Luttikhuizen, Henry, ed. Stirring the World: Germany Printmaking in the Age of Luther. Exh. cat., Center Art Gallery, Calvin College. Grand Rapids, 2017, pp. 106-107 (pl. 24).

Hans Sebald Beham, Impossibility, 1549, engraving printed in black ink on laid paper. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. James E. Scripps, 09.1S120.