Tobias Burying One of the Children of Israel

Pencz employed the engraving medium, incising fine lines into a metal plate and transferring them to paper. He used dense cross‑hatching to model shadows, render the texture of clothing folds, and suggest the rough bark of a tree in the background, achieving a nuanced sense of depth.

Trained in Nuremberg, Pencz worked in Albrecht Dürer’s workshop before traveling to Italy, where he absorbed Venetian influences. He was linked to the “godless painters,” a group briefly imprisoned in 1525 for theological dissent, reflecting the turbulent religious climate of his era.

The engraving reflects the Northern Renaissance’s interest in biblical subjects rendered with meticulous detail. Pencz’s exposure to both German and Italian artistic traditions is evident in the composition’s careful line work and the inclusion of a modest architectural element and distant statue.