Man of Sorrows
1465/70
Medium
Woodcut hand-colored with brush and watercolor on cream laid paper, edge-mounted to vellum, laid down on wooden book cover covered in hand-tooled leather with tooled metal hinges
Dimensions
Image: 39.7 × 26.2 cm (15 11/16 × 10 3/8 in.); Sheet: 40.5 × 26.9 cm (16 × 10 5/8 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
105719
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Images such as the Man of Sorrows were intended to shock the beholder into repentance. The pristine condition, and even survival, of this hand-colored woodcut is primarily due to its having been pasted-like many early devotional woodcuts-within a protective book cover. This unique impression was discovered amidst the rubble during the bombardment of London in 1945.