Christ on the Mount of Olives (from the Great Passion series)

Artist Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 – 1528)

Datec. 1497

MediumWoodcut

DimensionsImage: 15 1/4 x 11 in. (38.7 x 28 cm.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineMuseum purchase, 1978

Object numberSN8884

In 1497, Albrecht Dürer began to design a set of prints known as The Great Passion, a series of twelve woodcuts. The first seven were executed from 1497-1500 and the last five were not finished until 1510. The Great Passion was published in 1511 with a frontispiece and poem by the Benedictine theologian Benedictus Chelidonius. Having worked in the workshop of the famed Nuremburg woodcut designer, Michael Wolgemut, Dürer grew adept at harnessing the innate potentiality of line to convey light, depth, and emotion. In the Ringling print, Dürer's mastery of the woodcut technique is evident as he fills the composition with crisply hatched lines, punctuated by deeply incised pockets of rich black ink. This vigorous linearity becomes frenetic at times, echoing the inner-turmoil of Christ, who prays one last time before the Roman soldiers, lead by Judas, arrive to arrest him.

On View

Not on view