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An undescribed edition of Dürer's The man of sorrows, woodcut title (c. 1511) for the “Small Woodcut Passion

Une édition inédite de la page de titre de la Petite Passion sur bois d’Albrecht Dürer
Maik Bindewald

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  • 1 J. Meder, Dürer-Katalog: ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren (...)

1Albrecht Dürer's Small Woodcut Passion, with 36 sheets and a title page, is his most extensive series of prints1.

2The printing-blocks of the Small Woodcut Passion were created around 1509 to 1511 for the 1511 book edition and had several print runs thereafter in the same century. These woodblock cuts have been stored in the British Museum, London, since 1839. Today, two of them are missing, including the one of the Man of Sorrows. The unique known impression from this printing-block is held in the British Museum, with a title in Gothic letters at the top. After the suppression of the gothic characters, the woodcut, with an Latin text on the front and back, was only used in the 1511 edition, and then not at all, according to J. Meder. The literature probably assumes that this printing plate was lost early on.

3J. Meder recorded only two state of the title page, the Man of Sorrows. The first state, of which only one copy is known, has a title text with Gothic letters (Fig. 1). The second state is described as a book edition of 1511 with a text in Latin above and below the image, without any descriptions of the damage to the Christ figure (Fig. 2). J. Meder does not know of any other edition of the Man of Sorrows after the 1511 edition. Other editions of the Man of Sorrows after 1511 are not mentioned in other studies either.

Fig. 1. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state I/3b, woodcut, sheet 13,3 x 10,3 cm (British Museum, London, Inv.-Nr. 1834,0712.2), proofs, unique, title text in gothic letters

Fig. 2. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state IIa/3b, woodcut, sheet 17,8 x 13,7 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv.-Nr. 68.193), title Text in printed letters, latin Book edition of 1511

4Prints of the second state, without the damaged figure, are held in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, and the Museum of Fine Art, Boston. Close observation of the figure of Christ in the second state, however, reveals a subtle and undescribed difference. In the falling loincloth at Jesus' right knee, between the hand resting and the stone, a small gap has never been described by J. Meder. However, due to the large number of prints and the resulting wear of the printing block, this gap has appeared over time and now divides the second state into II/a (Fig. 2) without a gap and II/b (Fig. 3) with this gap. Other prints with this gap are in the Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts, the Fine Art Museum, San Francisco, the British Museum, London, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the Otto Schäfer Foundation, Schweinfurt. A print from the Venator & Hanstein auction is evidence of an undescribed post-1511 edition without text on the front and back (Fig. 4). The paper, with only the figure of Christ, bears the watermark "Bull head" (Meder 81) and was used, according to J. Meder, in the years 1500 to 1515. Thus, this sheet is an early printing confirmed after the book was published.

Fig. 3a. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state IIb/3b, woodcut, sheet 14,6 x 10,9 cm (Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Inv.-Nr. 31442), title Text in printed letters, latin Book edition of 1511.

Fig. 3a. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows (detail), ca 1511, state IIb/3b, woodcut, sheet 14,6 x 10,9 cm (Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Inv.-Nr. 31442).

Fig. 4. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state IIIa/3b, woodcut, sheet 18,1 x 12,4 cm (Venator & Hanstein, Cologne, Auction 93, Lot 1094, 18. and 19. March 2005), without text on the front and back, with watermark “Bull’s Head” (Meder 81), used between 1500-1515 (Image courtesy Venator & Hanstein, Cologne).

5In addition, in his catalogue, J. Meder describes a very heavily trimmed print in the second state from the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart "A print without text on the reverse side, all textual elements on the front side missing, probably cut" (Fig. 5). A comparison with the title pages of the 1511 edition of the book and with the sheet from the auction of Venator & Hanstein calls into question J. Meder's assertion. The woodcut from the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart has raw white and unprinted paper with a width of 4mm between the lower edge of the floor and the lower edge of the sheet. The title pages of all collections have a distance of 1 mm between the bottom edge of the floor and the word "causa dolorum" in the subtitle. Thus, the text was not cut, as J.Meder assumes, but never existed. The printing mentioned by J.Meder in Stuttgart is a very fine, clean and early printing, without text and without watermark, but which has the previously described gap in the loincloth. The Stuttgart folio is therefore also a confirmed later printing of the 1511 book edition and not a trimmed version of the second state as described by J. Meder.

Fig. 5. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state IIIa/3b, woodcut, sheet 8,9 x 7,8 cm (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Inv.-Nr. A3520), without text on the front and back, without watermark.

6In addition, there is a late print of the Christ figure without text, based on the 1511 edition from the Karl & Faber auction (Fig. 6). The loincloth on the right leg has suffered numerous gaps over time, as have the foot and nimbus. The sheet bears the "double eagle" watermark (Meder 215) and is later, according to J. Meder, than the year 1600.

Fig. 6. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state IIIb/3b, woodcut, sheet 13 x 10 cm (Karl & Faber, Munich, Auction 230, Lot 53, 11 June 2010), without text on the front and back, with watermark “Double headed eagle” (Meder 215), after the year 1600. (Image courtesy Karl & Faber, Munich).

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Notes

1 J. Meder, Dürer-Katalog: ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustände, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen, Wien, 1932, S. 129-132, Nr. 125.

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Table des illustrations

Légende Fig. 1. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state I/3b, woodcut, sheet 13,3 x 10,3 cm (British Museum, London, Inv.-Nr. 1834,0712.2), proofs, unique, title text in gothic letters
URL http://journals.openedition.org/estampe/docannexe/image/4010/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 762k
Légende Fig. 2. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state IIa/3b, woodcut, sheet 17,8 x 13,7 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv.-Nr. 68.193), title Text in printed letters, latin Book edition of 1511
URL http://journals.openedition.org/estampe/docannexe/image/4010/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 1,4M
Légende Fig. 3a. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state IIb/3b, woodcut, sheet 14,6 x 10,9 cm (Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Inv.-Nr. 31442), title Text in printed letters, latin Book edition of 1511.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/estampe/docannexe/image/4010/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 1,5M
Légende Fig. 3a. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows (detail), ca 1511, state IIb/3b, woodcut, sheet 14,6 x 10,9 cm (Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Inv.-Nr. 31442).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/estampe/docannexe/image/4010/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 84k
Légende Fig. 4. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state IIIa/3b, woodcut, sheet 18,1 x 12,4 cm (Venator & Hanstein, Cologne, Auction 93, Lot 1094, 18. and 19. March 2005), without text on the front and back, with watermark “Bull’s Head” (Meder 81), used between 1500-1515 (Image courtesy Venator & Hanstein, Cologne).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/estampe/docannexe/image/4010/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 1,1M
Légende Fig. 5. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state IIIa/3b, woodcut, sheet 8,9 x 7,8 cm (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Inv.-Nr. A3520), without text on the front and back, without watermark.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/estampe/docannexe/image/4010/img-6.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 1,0M
Légende Fig. 6. Albrecht Dürer, The Man of Sorrows, ca 1511, state IIIb/3b, woodcut, sheet 13 x 10 cm (Karl & Faber, Munich, Auction 230, Lot 53, 11 June 2010), without text on the front and back, with watermark “Double headed eagle” (Meder 215), after the year 1600. (Image courtesy Karl & Faber, Munich).
URL http://journals.openedition.org/estampe/docannexe/image/4010/img-7.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 442k
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Référence électronique

Maik Bindewald, « An undescribed edition of Dürer's The man of sorrows, woodcut title (c. 1511) for the “Small Woodcut Passion »Nouvelles de l’estampe [En ligne], 269 | 2023, mis en ligne le 15 avril 2023, consulté le 18 avril 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/estampe/4010 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/estampe.4010

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Maik Bindewald

Collector of old master prints

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