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Martin Schongauer

Two Shields with a Hare and a Moor's Head, Held by a Wild Man

1480/90
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
7.8 × 7.8 cm (3.1 × 3.1 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Schongauer may have produced his ten heraldic shields in roundels as family crests for the middle classes rather than the nobility. The partially blank areas of the shields and the fanciful figures holding them suggest that the works were not exclusively made for families of high standing but could have been purchased individually and filled in with other family emblems to be used more widely. The depiction of this forest-dwelling wild man, wreathed in vines and clothed only in his own hair, alludes to a simpler time before the advent of civilization, when men were free to indulge all their appetites.

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