Saint Apollonia
c. 1500
Medium
woodcut
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Print Purchase Fund (Rosenwald Collection)
Accession Number
1969.3.8
Art Historical Context
Albrecht Dürer, masterful German artist of the Northern Renaissance, created *Saint Apollonia* around1500 as a delicate woodcut print. Born in Nuremberg in 1471, Dürer revolutionized printmaking with his extraordinary technical precision, bridging the gap between painting and mass-produced art. This small-scale work, now housed in the National Gallery Art's Rosenwald Collection, exemplifies his ability to achieve intricate detail on wood blocks—a relief printing technique where the artist carves away negative space, inks the raised surface, and presses it onto paper. Depicting Saint Apollonia...
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 ...