Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)

German painter, engraver, Albrecht Dürer was the designer of woodcuts and major art theorist. Dürer was born in Nuremberg and trained first under his father, a goldsmith. He was apprenticed (1486-90) to M. Wolgemut, in whose workshop he became familiar with the best work of contemporary German artists and with the recent technical advances in engraving and drawing for woodcuts. He was in Nuremberg for his marriage in 1496, but left in the autumn of that year for Italy. On this visit and during the longer stay of 1505-7, he made a profound study of Italian painting at the very moment when it was being changed by the revolutionary ideas of Leonardo da Vinci and others. He also studied the whole intellectual background of the Italian Renaissance, the writings of the humanists and, in particular, Mantegna’s attempts to recreate in engravings and paintings the classical canon of art. Dürer made his own personal synthesis of the arts of the north and south, a synthesis which was to have immense importance to European art. His success and reputation increased rapidly. Until 1499 he was engaged chiefly on engravings and designs for his books of woodcuts. He was encouraged by an enthusiastic patron, the Elector of Saxony, and he became the friend of many of the chief figures of the Reformation. Though he never broke with Catholicism, Dürer was deeply involved in the religious controversy until his death. In 1512 he was made court painter to the Emperor Maximilian. In his last years he planned and partly composed a thesis on the theoretical basis of the arts.

The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Art and Artists. Typical of Dürer's Passion woodcuts, the print is a window onto an event rather than a balanced and complete composition. Despite the architecture, the palm tree defines the sub-tropical location of the scene.

Dürer began the Large Passion c, 1496-97; Strauss thinks it quite possible that The Flagellation (Bartsch 8, Strauss 37),was the first print in the series. Over the next few years, Dürer added six additional woodcuts, and the seven were sold as single sheets. Dürer returned to the series c. 1510, adding 4 more woodcuts, and published the series with a frontispiece and a Latin text by Benedictus Chelidonius printed on the verso of the prints. Other works in the series include The Agony in the Garden (c. 1496-97, though possibly 1498: B. 6, S. 38), The Deposition of Christ (c. 1496-97: B. 12, S. 39), Ecce Homo (1498: B. 9, S. 58); The Bearing of the Cross (c. 1498-99: B. 10, S. 59), The Lamentation (c. 1498-99: B. 13, S. 60), The Crucifixion (c. 1498: B. 11, S. 61), The Last Supper (dated 1510: B. 5, S. 148); The Betrayal of Christ (dated 1510: B. 7, S. 149), The Harrowing of Hell (dated 1510: B. 14, S. 150), The Resurrection (dated 1510: B. 15, S. 151), Christ as the Man of Sorrows Mocked by a Soldier (c. 1511: B. 4, S. 157). Although The Trinity (dated 1511: B. 122, S. 164) was not bound up with the other sheets of the Large Passion, in size, in style, and in subject matter, it is one with the late sheets of the series. Dürer interrupted his work on the Large Passion to work on his other great series, The Apocaplyse (c. 1498, republished with new works 1511) the Life of the Virgin (c. 1501-2, completed and published 1511), the Small Woodcut Passion (c. 1508-1510, published 1511), and the Engraved Passion (c. 1506-1510). The inventiveness shown in these related series can be quickly seen by comparing them: Dürer was rarely content to simply repeat an approach that he had already tried.

Walter L. Strauss in his catalogue raisonne, Albrecht Dürer Woodcuts and Woodblocks (Abaris Books, 1980), provides a summary of comments upon each individual work. Strauss’s Commentary volume in the Illustrated Bartsch series updates his commentary here. As always, Panofsky’s Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer (Princeton University Press, 1945, revised editions culminating in the 1971 edition) is crucial for an understanding of the work of this great artist and printmaker.

According to Walter Strauss (Albrecht Dürer Woodcuts and Wood Blocks [NY: Abaris Books, 1980], p. 342 and after), Dürer began the Small Woodcut Passion sometime in 1508 or 1509, completed it in 1510, and published it in 1511 with Latin verses by Benedictus Chelidonius facing each plate. There are thirty-seven woodcuts in the series, beginning The Fall of Man and concluding with The Last Judgment. While only a few of the plates are dated, those that are suggest that Dürer originally began with Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and concluded with The Last Judgment. As he was completing the series c. 1510, however, he added The Fall of Man, The Expulsion from Eden (dated 1510), The Annunciation, The Nativity, and Saints Peter, Paul, and Veronica holding the Suderium (dated 1510). These additions change the focus from a history of The Passion to a history of mankind with Adam and Eve as the source of man’s woes and Jesus as man’s salvation. Of all of Dürer's great works in series, the Small Woodcut Passion is by far the largest. It was also one of his most popular: it was reprinted several times up to an Italian edition of 1612. Although there exist later impressions printed from Dürer's original blocks, they are gray and blotchy and do not print well. In addition to the prints made from Dürer's woodblocks and the copies by Marantonio Raimondi (engravings published in Venice in the early 16th century), Virgil Solis (published in Nurenberg in the late 16th century with Solis’ monogram VS, and a set of very deceptive copies by Mommard published a bit later, there exists as well a set made in the 19th century from metal plates made from plaster casts of thierty-five of Dürer's original woodblocks after they were given to the British Museum in 1839. In 1844 Henry Cole of the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) published his collection of the the Dürer Small Passion woodcuts and described the process by which they were made: