Groundbreaking
Past exhibition
Albrecht Dürer
The Nativity, from The Small Passion , 16th Century CE
Woodcut - Printed from plate and hand coloured
30 x 40 cm
11 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
Passepartout - 11cm x 13.4cm
11 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
Passepartout - 11cm x 13.4cm
Further images
Provenance
Private Collection BavariaKolb Antik Ulm, 2021
Please note - 35 of the 37 woodblocks believed to be used as the primary blocks for the series Small Passion, (published as a book in Nuremberg in 1511) are held by the British Museum. The plate used for the Nativity (plate 5) seems to be made of pearwood and one of two from the series which were cut along a radial longitudinal section of the wood-grain (British Museum, Scientific Research Department, Dec.1993). For more see Renaissance Prints, BM exh.cat (1995), no.28. For an impression of this woodblock, see Meder 129 (1896-1-25-1-4).
Please note, as per our description, the small passion as a widely circulated folio and thus one cannot be certain, unless scientifically tested (which is prohibitive for a work such as this) whether a print is from the British Museum block or one of the many others which were presumably in circulation.
Exhibitions
Groundbreaking, HALLE13, 2021-22Publications
For reprinting of the same image please see:Catalogue Raisonné - Hollstein VII 116.129; Schoch, Mende, and Scherbaum 190
Meder 1932 / Dürer Katalog (129)
Bartsch / Le Peintre graveur (VII.119.20)
Dodgson 1903, 1911 / Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts in the BM, 2 vols (I.262.7)
Schoch 2001-04 / Albrecht Dürer, das druckgraphische Werk. 3 vols I Intaglio, II Woodcuts, III Book illustrations (II.190)
For comparable prints please see original woodcuts in British Museum collection - Museum number - (1895,0122.509) & (E,2.226)
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