A large etching like the Hirschvogel, although German rather than Italian or Netherlandish, seemed to amply reflect some of the key ambitions of the new show. The increasing use of etching and engraving for large-scale prints in the mid-sixteenth century "shifts the large print concept away from the decorative and informational towards more painterly printed images," says Wyckoff. Apart from Titian's woodcuts, which are exceptional in this genre, as she points out, intaglio techniques allow the printmaker to create a finer, more detailed image with metal tools and plates. Wyckoff admits that the new acquisition is not an obvious example of the pure Danube School landscapes for which the artist is best known. But with its biblical subject matter and classically modeled figures, the Hirschvogel represents some of the painterly visions of the makers of grand-scale intaglio prints of this period.

Further, as Wyckoff points out, prints entering the Davis collection have to work hard; the Hirschvogel could not be justified simply as an exhibition piece. The center's holdings of some 4,700 prints represent what she calls "a micro-encyclopedic collection" and she is intensely conscious of the teaching function of the material, which must serve the multifarious academic needs not only of the art-history department at Wellesley but also of the studio art and religion departments, among others. As it happens, the Hirschvogel is not only the museum's first print by the artist, but also its first German etching of the key period in the mid-sixteenth century. 

"These large-scale prints were probably made in large numbers," says Wyckoff, "but relatively few still exist, since if they were used as they were intended to be, they did not usually survive."  By definition, the earliest prints of this kind are those most likely to have been pasted onto walls in a variety of religious and domestic settings -- and are therefore least likely to have survived intact or at all. In addition, the question of how large or complex composites were originally put together (and at what date a particular impression was actually assembled) is not always easily answered (although this was not the case with the Hirschvogel because it comprised only three sheets). 

And while Grand Scale will thus consist largely of what Wyckoff describes as "noble ruins," survivors, like many early prints, of their chiefly functional status, the Hirschvogel is in remarkably good shape. Consequently, it is well placed to fulfill its numerous roles in the museum's print collection long after the show has moved on.