The Michelfeldt Tapestry (Allegory on Social Injustice), first part of three
1526
Medium
Woodcut in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 15.3 × 31.1 cm (6 1/16 × 12 1/4 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
106546
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Even comparatively clean prints preserved in long-forgotten albums usually bear traces of folding, inscribing, pasting, stamping, or trimming, though such clues may stay hidden on their blank versos. In particular, the backs of Renaissance impressions often hide ownership marks, such as the coat of arms at the lower edge of this work, which identifies it as the property of the nineteenth-century Austrian collector Franz Ritter von Hauslab. This deeply printed woodcut sheet comes from a three-par...
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 ...