Tomas 1545 - 1546

This tiny engraving of Saint Thomas was made by Sebald Beham sometime in the first half of the 16th century. It’s a detailed rendering, despite its size, and suggests much about the place of religious imagery in the culture of the German Renaissance. Beham was one of the so-called “Little Masters,” a group of printmakers working in Nuremberg, Germany. In a time of religious upheaval spurred on by the Protestant Reformation, artists like Beham found themselves navigating new social and political currents. Religious images, once the almost exclusive domain of the Catholic Church, were now being produced independently, for a wider market. This engraving, with its meticulous detail and classical references, speaks to this changing landscape. To fully understand the significance of a piece like this, we delve into the social and religious history of the period, studying pamphlets, religious tracts, and other images. In doing so, we understand how artists responded to the changing social and political landscape of their time.