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Overview
Heinrich Aldegrever was one of the so-called 'Little Masters', a group of German artists making small prints in the generation after Albrecht Dürer, who included Hans Baldung Grien, the Beham brothers and Georg Pencz. The close resemblance of his work to that of Dürer led to Aldegrever being called the 'Albert of Westphalia', although his style went on to depart from his mentor's intricate line work to stress the optical effects of light and shadow. He became a Lutheran convert in 1531, but continued to depict religious themes, while his ornamental engravings were used as models by artists and craftsmen well into the 17th century. His images of virtues and vices were so popular that Aldegrever made cycles of both in 1549 (not yet represented in the collection) and, here, 1552. Te Papa owns the complete cycle of virtues and vices, all acquired in 1978. These complement several Aldegrever prints in the foundation art collection, presented to the Colonial Museum, forerunner of Te Papa, in 1869 by Bishop Ditlev Monrad.
Wrath, anger or irascibility is one of the seven Vices or Deadly Sins. Although Aldegrever became a fervent supporter of the Reformation, he would have endorsed the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the neutral act of anger becomes the sin of wrath when it is directed against an innocent person, when it is unduly strong or long-lasting, or when it desires excessive punishment. 'If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin'. (CCC 2302) Hatred is the sin of desiring that someone else may suffer misfortune or evil, and is a mortal sin when one desires grave harm. (CCC 2302-03)
The engraving of 1552 exudes wrath. Its female perfsonification, Ira, shows her astride a bear, holding a bow with three taut arrows. The bear famously symbolises anger, especially when cornered or otherwise threatened; a famous Biblical incident is when two female bears came out of the woods and mauled the 42 lads who had mocked Elijah (2 Kings 2:24). The boar on the escutcheon symbolises gluttony as well as anger, while the creature perched on it is the legendary basilisk, a cock with a snake's tail, famed for its destructiveness. Pliny wrote of the basilisk: 'When it hisses, all the other serpents fly from it: and it does not advance its body, like the others, by a succession of folds, but moves along upright and erect upon the middle. It destroys all shrubs [and] it burns up all the grass, too, and breaks the stones, so tremendous is its noxious influence. It was formerly a general belief that if a man on horseback killed one of these animals with a spear, the poison would run up the weapon and kill not only the rider but the horse, as well'. The hoopoe on the standard is almost as horrible. To deter predators when nesting, mothers and chicks have glands which produce a foul smelling liquid. This sticky fluid, which smells like rotting meat, is rubbed on their plumage to keep intruders at bay. The substances can also be squirted with deadly accuracy to deter marauding cats and humans. This is why the Old Testament declared the birds to be impure, Leviticus advising that they should not be eaten, and Deuteronomy that they were not kosher.
Dr Mark Stocker, Curator Historical International Art December 2016