Christ Nailed to the Cross, from "The Small Passion"
ca. 1509
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
sheet: 5 x 3 7/8 in. (12.7 x 9.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Junius Spencer Morgan, 1919
Accession Number
19.73.193
Tags
Art Historical Context
Albrecht Dürer's *Christ Nailed to the*, from his renowned series *The Small Passion (ca. 1509), captures a pivotal moment in the Passion of Christ with haunting intensity. This woodcut, just 5 x 3 7/8 inches, belongs to a set of 37 prints that narrate Christ's life and suffering in intimate, accessible detail. Dürer, a master of the Northern Renaissance, revolutionized printmaking by elevating woodcuts—typically crude relief prints—from humble book illustrations to sophisticated art forms rivaling paintings. In this scene, Christ is affixed to the cross amid tormentors and mourners, their ex...
About the Artist
Albrecht Dürer · 1471–1528
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) stands as the preeminent figure of the Northern Renaissance and arguably the most influential artist in the history of printmaking. Born in Nuremberg on May 21, 1471, and dying in the same city on April 6, 1528, Dürer revolutionized the status of the artist in Northern Europe, transforming printmaking from a commercial craft into an independent fine art and establishing ...