Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

BEARING OF THE CROSS, SHEET NO. 10 OF THE ENGRAVED PASSION

1512
Copperplate on paper 7,6 x 11,9 cm. The Engraved Passion (1507-1512) was one of the four main series of religious prints created by Dürer and helped establish his reputation as an outstanding Renaissance graphic artist. The others were the woodcut series Life of the Virgin Mary, the Great Passion, and the Little Passion, all published in 1511. The Engraved Passion consists of fifteen small engravings and tells the story of Christ`s betrayal by Judas, his crucifixion, and resurrection. Dürer was renowned for inventing new and imaginative ways of depicting scenes from Christian narratives. The Engraved Passion is compositionally very dramatic, complicated, and symbolically complex, with emotional contrasts of light and shade. Unlike more populist woodcuts, they were designed to appeal to a more exclusive market of connoisseurs and collectors. Since it took several years to complete the series, it is likely that individual prints were sold separately. Margin 2 mm. Period, high quality and contrasting print, foxing on the left edge on the back, on the back thinning of the paper after the detached glue in the upper right corner. Bartsch 12 Meder 12 ; Koehler 51; Schoch, Mende, and Scherbaum 50c2