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Over three hundred engravings have been attributed to Master E.S. with subjects ranging from playing cards, ornamental devices, and grotesque alphabets to numerous representations of the Madonna and Child.As an example of his more fanciful inventions, the fantastic alphabet of about 1465 displays the excellence of his refined technique as well as his delight in humour through satire. Twenty-three capricious letters form the complete set of a Gothic minuscule (lowercase) alphabet. Bizarre combinations of monsters, hybrids, wild men, peasants, and the like are cramped and squeezed in the attenuated bars and arcs that make up the script, and often a clever satire emerges from this funny letters.
The letter G seems to evoke a biting comment on the licentious lifestyle of the lesser clergy. A vulgar monk, baring his backside, pursues two nuns, one riding piggyback. On her outstretched arm rests an owl, the sinister bird of the night. The nuns are led by two monkeys, obvious symbols of carnal lust, one of whom plays music to add the erotic tone of the caper, and between them a dog bites a bone, a motif frequently related to the vice of jealousy.
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