Mary Magdalen Washing Christ’s Feet

Israhel Van Meckenem was an early print entrepreneur whose engraved production ranged widely, and who copied the work of others to market them himself. This diminutive print was a precursor to the Little Masters engravings. In its scale as well as its perfunctory execution with little regard to painterly illusionism, it also recalls an earlier era in which small prints were pasted into printed books and manuscripts to illustrate Christian texts.