The Passion: The Raising of Lazarus
Urs Graf the Elder (Swiss, c. 1485–1527/29)
before 1508
Medium
woodcut handcolored with watercolor
Dimensions
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Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Norman Zaworski in memory of Tina Cowgill
Accession Number
1995.247
Tags
male
About this artwork
The first woodcuts appeared in Europe at the end of the 14th century but were relatively rare until the early 15th century. By the 1430s thousands of woodcuts were available with simple, crude designs and were used as playing cards or as devotional images. Inexpensive, they were readily purchased at fairs, markets, and pilgrimage sites. Following the tradition of manuscript illumination, woodcuts were often hand-colored with watercolor, a quicker and cheaper process than printing with color.