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Albrecht Dürer, Small Passion Woodcut collection (MSS 406)
Albrecht Dürer
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Portrait of Dürer from H. Pantaleon, Prosopographiae heroum atque illustrium uirorum (Basil, 1565). |
Albrecht Dürer was a well-known German Renaissance artist and art theorist, who is remembered for his printed art in addition to paintings and drawings. Dürer was born at Nuremberg on May 21, 1471 during the early period of the moveable type printing press. His father was a goldsmith and at a young age Albrecht learned the craft of engraving designs into objects, which prepared him for a career in print artistry. He first apprenticed with the Nuremberg painter Michael Wolgemut (1486-89), then traveled outside Nuremberg to learn in different environments: he was at Colmar in 1491, at Basel in 1492-93, and at Strassburg in 1493-94. Dürer returned to Nuremberg in 1494. He was a popular artist in his day and interacted with other major Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Giovanni Bellini. Dürer died at Nuremberg on April 6, 1528. |
The Small Passion
Dürer worked on the Small Passion between 1508 and 1511. It contained thirty-six woodcuts plus an additional the title page image ("Man of Sorrows"). The Small Passion was printed with four woodcuts to a sheet, on eleven half-folio sheets (Landau and Parshall, 352). The Small Passion was published as a book and designed to tell a narrative beginning with the fall in the garden and ending with the judgment of Christ. According to Dürer's diary, he sold sixteen sets of the Small Passion to a dealer named Sebald Fischer for six stuiver each; Dürer also records that six stuiver is the same price that he paid for shoes, thus they were a relatively affordable set in his day (Landau and Parshall, 352-53). Dürer's Small Passion was a very popular work and continued to be printed into the seventeenth century from the original wood blocks. Thirty-four of these original blocks are extant and reside in the British Museum.
The Small Passion woodcut collection at Pitts Library
This collection contains five woodcuts from Dürer's Small Passion. The Small Passion originally contained thirty-six woodcuts, plus a title page. The five woodcuts in this collection feature events in the life of Christ from the Gospels: the washing of Peter's feet (John 13:1-16), the crowning of thorns (Matthew 27:29; Mark 15:17; John 19:2), the resurrection (Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-23), the meeting of the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), and the doubting Thomas episode (John 20:24-29). For more technical information about the following prints, see the finding aid.
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Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples, circa 1511 |
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Christ Crowned with Thorns, circa 1509 |
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The Resurrection, circa 1510-1511 |
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Christ in Emmaus, circa 1510 |
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Christ and the Doubting Thomas, circa 1510 |