Artwork
To Feed the Hungry
To Feed the Hungry is an ink print by the Renaissance artist Georg Pencz. It dates from 1525 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Georg Pencz, a German artist active in the early sixteenth century, produced the engraving *To Feed the Hungry* in 1525. Executed in the Northern Renaissance tradition, the work presents a compact interior scene populated by four figures engaged around a table, rendered with meticulous line work that emphasizes texture and spatial depth.
Subject & Meaning
The composition depicts a modest gathering in which a shirtless man holds a plate while another, hat in hand, offers a pouch. A third figure points toward the seated individual, and a fourth stands with a jug. The arrangement suggests a moment of negotiation or moral deliberation concerning the distribution of food, reflecting contemporary concerns about charity and social responsibility.
Technique & Style
Pencz employed fine, cross‑hatching lines to model light and shadow, giving the figures a sculptural quality despite the two‑dimensional medium. The engraving’s attention to surface detail—fabric folds, facial expressions, and the simple furnishings—exemplifies the precision characteristic of German printmaking influenced by Albrecht Dürer’s workshop.
History & Provenance
The print’s later ownership records are sparse, but it remains cited in studies of early modern German engraving.
Trained under Dürer in Nuremberg, Pencz later spent time in Italy, absorbing Venetian compositional ideas. In the year of the engraving’s creation, he was detained with the Beham brothers for holding reformist religious opinions, situating the work within the volatile atmosphere of the early Reformation. The print’s later ownership records are sparse, but it remains cited in studies of early modern German engraving.
Artist & collection
Artist
Georg Pencz (c. 1500 – 11 October 1550) was a German engraver, painter and printmaker. Pencz was probably born in Westheim near Bad Windsheim/Franconia. He travelled to Nuremberg in 1523 and joined Albrecht Dürer’s…
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