Penance of St. John Chrysostom

Barthel Beham borrowed this seductive reclining nude—and dotted modeling—from Venetian art. The loose religious context is the legend of Saint John of Chrysostom, who was so contrite after ravaging an emperor’s daughter and killing her that he crawled on all fours as penance. Later she is found alive, along with a child. Beham followed artists Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach the Elder in making the crawling saint a distant speck. After Barthel’s death, brother Sebald took over the copper plate, strengthening the engraved lines to extend the plate’s usefulness.