Schön, Erhard

(c. 1491-1542)

   German woodcut designer from Nuremberg who was influenced by Albrecht Dürer in whose house he lived for a while. Over 1,000 woodcut illustrations by Schön have survived, including those in Johann Koberger's Hortulus Animae of 1517-1519, a popular compilation of prayers. In the mid-1520s, Schön embraced Lutheranism and devoted his time to creating engravings that furthered the Lutheran anti-Catholic agenda. Schön is best remembered for his Four Rulers (c. 1534), an anamorphic wood-cut that includes the portraits of the Hapsburg Charles V who condemned Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521, his brother and heir Ferdinand I, Pope Paul III who would later convoke the Council of Trent to curtail the spread of Protestantism, and Francis I of France who persecuted the Protestants of France. When viewed headon, the work is a blur of zigzagging lines. The figures do not reveal themselves until viewed from the left and at a low angle. The work is the ultimate expression of the interest in optics that had awakened in the 15th century among Northern masters.