Christ in the center holds a large wooden cross over his left shoulder, a crowd surrounds him.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

A man in the lower right, crouched position, grabs the robe on Christ’s chest, there’s a hammer in his belt. Two praying women are at Christ’s back, a third is on his right kneeling and holding up a white cloth. His right hand is raised in a benediction gesture, his troubled face looks up to the left. His robes are red and purple, thorns wrapped around his head. An armed solider behind the cross turns back yelling at the crowd with an angry face, there are more soldiers with weapons behind him.

Gallery Text

These prints from Dürer’s Engraved Passion series were hand colored in 1588 by the Nuremburg colorist Georg Mack the Elder, who added his initials in gold. Today, seven sheets from the series with matching illuminated mounts and manuscript texts on their versos are known, which suggests that all sixteen prints from the series were painted and bound together as a personal prayer book. Mack applied pigments and gold and silver highlights that correspond to Dürer’s printed lines. Together the prints and their decorated mounts evoke the look and feel of an illuminated manuscript. These innovative, hybrid objects thus function as a bridge between earlier handwork traditions of the Middle Ages and the letterpress books that revolutionized the dissemination of texts in Renaissance Europe.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2013.7
People
Albrecht Dürer, German (Nuremberg 1471 - 1528 Nuremberg)
Georg Mack the Elder, German (active in Nuremberg c. 1556-1601)
Title
Christ Carrying the Cross
Other Titles
Series/Book Title: The Engraved Passion
Classification
Prints
Work Type
print
Date
1512/hand-colored circa 1588
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/343536

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Engraving, hand-colored with watercolor, opaque watercolor, and gold and silver on cream antique laid paper, adhered to a decorated vellum mount; verso of mount: decorated border, with German manuscript text in brown ink and gold
Technique
Engraving
Dimensions
print: 11.9 x 7.4 cm (4 11/16 x 2 15/16 in.)
parchment sheet: 17.5 x 12.9 cm (6 7/8 x 5 1/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: upper right corner: signed and dated on plate with artist's initials, 1512/AD
    initialed in gilt below Dürer's mark, GM

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Helmut H. Rumbler Kunsthandlung, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, by 1989] to; Samuel Josefowitz Collection, London, 1989, sold; [Christie's, New York, "Albrecht Dürer Masterpieces from a Private Collection," 29 January 2013, lot 39] to; [C.G. Boerner LLC, New York] to; Harvard Art Museums, Fogg Museum, 2013.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Bartsch, Meder, Hollstein 12; Schoch-Mende-Scherbaum 54

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Acquisition Fund for Prints
Accession Year
2013
Object Number
2013.7
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
The engraving was hand-colored by Georg Mack the Elder circa 1588 (initialed "GM" in gold). The recto border of the vellum mount is decorated with a scroll of tiger lilies and blue flowers and a bird above and a grasshopper below. The verso has a German manuscript text in brown ink and gold relating to the Suffering of Christ, and the border is decorated with a scroll of red and pink carnations, a different flower above, a pheasant, an ant, a snail and a quail.

Publication History

  • Katalog 25. Catalogue of dealer Helmut H. Rumbler, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, auct. cat. (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1989), no. 11
  • Susan Dackerman, Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts, exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD, 2002), p. 224, footnote 1, under no. 46

Exhibition History

Related Objects

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu