Career
He was one of the "Little Masters", the group of German artists making small old master prints in the generation after Dürer. Painter, printmaker and goldsmith active in a Westphalia milieu. Born in Paderborn. His real name was Trippenmecker, which in Westphalian dialect means a clog-maker.
lieutenant is not known where Aldegrever was taught.
He probably worked in a workshop of one of the Soest goldsmiths. His early works show a strong Westphalian influence.
Aldegrever made a journey to the Netherlands, where he became acquainted with works of Joos van Cleve, Barendt van Orley, Lucas van Leyden and Jacob Cornelisz. Around 1525 he moved to Soest, where a year later he painted the wings and predella of the Mary altar for the church of Saint Peter.
His signature and symbolic clog show that he was still using his father"s name.
His first engravings appeared in 1527. They were signed with a monogram "AG", resembling closely that of Albrecht Dürer. In 1531, influenced by surrounding religious fervour, he became a Lutheran.
Because of lack of church commissions he devoted most of his time to portrait painting and printmaking.
Like them, he was also a skilled ornament designer. From the close resemblance of his style to that of Albrecht Dürer he has also sometimes been called the "Albert of Westphalia".
About a third of his prints were ornamental engravings. They were used as models by artists and craftsmen well into the seventeenth century.
Aldegrever, who actively supported the Reformation, executed portraits of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchton.
He was commissioned by the bishop of Münster in 1535-1536 to engrave portraits of Anabaptist leaders January van Leyden and Bernhard Knipperdolling, although they were already imprisoned, and only caricatures of them circulated. Aldegrever was interested also in folk subjects. In 1538 and 1551 two series of prints depicting marriage dances were made.
An important part of his oeuvre are prints on mythological subjects, the Deeds of Hercules being one of the best examples.
Only two paintings are firmly attributed to him: the wings and predella of the Marienaltar (c 1525-1526) in the Wiesenkirche in Soest, and a portrait of Graf Phillip von Waldeck (1837) in Schloss Aroldsen.