| As is commonly known, Dürer
created three versions of the events of the Passion: the Large Passion, a woodcut
version; the Small Engraved Passion, his only engraved version--meant for
collectors and connoisseurs; and the Small Passion, also a woodcut series. The
print in the collection, Christ in Limbo, is from the last book. Unlike the Large Passion,
however, which is a tour de force of Dürer's consummate woodcutting skills, the
smaller Passion is a homelier view of the trials of Christ. It was meant to appeal
to the very devout and focuses on the more emotional side of the Passion. It was also
reduced to create a book of more manageable proportions. Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 - April 6,
1528) was a German painter, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established
his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been
conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Renaissance in Northern Europe ever
since. His well-known works include the Apocalypse woodcuts, Knight, Death, and the Devil
(1513), Saint Jerome in his Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the
subject of extensive analysis and interpretation. His watercolours mark him as one of the
first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the
potential of that medium. Dürer's introduction of classical motifs into Northern art,
through his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists, have secured his reputation
as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance. This is reinforced by
his theoretical treatise which involve principles of mathematics, perspective and ideal
proportions. |
