Monogrammist IB

The Virtues - Faith

Engraving, ca. 1523-30

Faith, seated in profile to right, holding a chalice and a cross; from a series of seven engravings with female personifications sitting with their respective attributes in interiors with views of landscapes through windows.

Signed with monogram at lower right. Lettered at upper center: 'FIDS'

re. British Museum Bartsch / Le Peintre graveur (VIII.307.23)

Monogrammist IB was active in Nuremberg for a few years in the 1520s and left behind a few dozen extremely accomplished engravings. No further facts about this significant German Renaissance artist have so far come to light, and it is likely enough that no biographical information has survived.