Pen-and-ink drawing, 32.4 x 19.7 cm.
Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
The most important sheets appear to have been either transferred to the picture, which had been drawn in preparation, and onto the block by Dürer, or he had carefully monitored its transfer by his assistants. After he had married and founded his own workshop, Dürer secured a regular source of income from his woodcuts, which he inscribed with a monogram in order to secure the copyright for himself.
Apart from the series Ritter von Thurn, Von den Exempeln der Gotsfurcht un Erberkeit (1493), the sheet The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1496) also belongs to his very early woodcuts. This work refers to the legend of the Emperor Hadrian (76-138 AD), with its individual, clearly structured groups, and tells of the brutal events of the punishment of the converted. Hercules Conquering Cacus, the 39 x 28.3 centimetre large sheet, is dated from around the same year. Dürer’s growing confidence in dealing with this medium becomes apparent through the banderol Ercules and the drawing of the landscape. Dürer owes his great reputation, which he had acquired by this time, to the dissemination of his woodcuts, which were collected by all sections of society with great enthusiasm. His first overwhelming success was Apocalypse (Apocalipsis cum figuris), consisting of a series of 15 woodcuts, printed in 1498 by Dürer’s godson Anton Koberger in German and Latin. Apocalypse was outstanding because of its realistic and imaginative presentations, proclaiming the end of the world according to John’s Book of Revelations, and referring back to the illustrations of the Nuremberg Bible dated 1485.
The most well-known sheet, which had the greatest effect on the people who were expecting the end of the world at the turn of the fifteenth century, is certainly the fourth: the four riders shown galloping from left to right and watched by an angel are Death, Hunger, Plague, and War.
At this time Dürer was occupied with the great subject of the Passion) of Christ: He portrayed it four times in total: Initially in the twelve sheets of Green Passion (1504) and named because of the green grounding of the sheet; and then in the so-called Great Passion) (Passio domini nostri Jesu) (1510), called such because of the infrequently used sheet dimensions of 39 x 28 cm. Each sheet is accompanied by a Latin verse, and describes the last days, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. One of the most beautiful sheets describes Christ’s descent into limbo. Here Adam and Eve and other redeemed figures are standing behind Christ, who is leaning forward and being threatened by a devilish figure with a spear. The thirty-six woodcuts of the Small Passion (1509-1510) appeared almost simultaneously with these. Finally, the Copper Engraving Passion from the years 1507-1513, consisting of 16 copper engravings, was produced. Around the same time as the Great Passion, the twenty woodcuts of Life of Mary were published. On the frontispiece, Mary is depicted both as a mother as well as a divine being in an aureole, sitting on a crescent moon and surrounded by stars.
Another of Dürer’s projects was to consist of altogether 208 woodcuts. The Small Triumphal Wagon, also called the Burgundy Wedding (c.1516-1518), was not published until 1526, seven years after Maximilian’s death.