Israhel van Meckenem was notorious for being a Renaissance pirate printmaker. Nearly all of van Meckenem’s works have been identified as either reworked plates from other artists or copies of their work. He began his training with his father, Master of the Berlin Passion, and later with Master E.S., either in Switzerland or Alsace. He is known to have copied more than 200 prints by Master E.S. and many examples, like this one, after Martin Schongauer. The artist shrewdly marketed his prints by packaging them in small sets and even produced a series of unauthorized engraved indulgences, granting relief from purgatory in exchange for the recitation of prayers on his prints.
