The Emblem
Medium
woodcut
Dimensions
sheet: 45.8 × 32.2 cm · platemark: 37.6 × 23.9 cm
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection
Accession Number
1966.410
Tags
male
About this artwork
In Christian belief, God speaks the world into existence, creating it and ruling over it. This woodcut is one of over 1,000 images in the Nuremberg Chronicle, an early printed book narrating the history of the Christian world. Amid creeping vines and pillars of cloud, God sits enthroned, lips parted and hand upraised in a gesture of speaking. He holds an orb as a sign of his authority over the universe. The scroll above him reads: “For he [God] spoke and they were made: he commanded and they wer...