The Sixth Knot
c. 1507
Medium
Woodcut in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 27.1 × 21 cm (10 11/16 × 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 28.6 × 22.5 cm (11 5/16 × 8 7/8 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
2289
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Around 1506, Albrecht Dürer designed a series of six ornate woodcuts of labyrinthine designs after a set of engravings by the school of Leonardo da Vinci, which he may have seen or acquired during an early trip to Italy. Though Dürer left them unsigned, possibly because he borrowed their source material, he referred in his diary to giving away his series of knots on a trip to the Netherlands, and this title has become standard. These impressions are printed on a thin, nearly translucent Italian ...
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 ...