Map of the World, c. 1480

Not on View

Medium

woodcut, hand-colored in green, yellow, and ochre

Dimensions

image: 41.3 x 29.2 cm (16 1/4 x 11 1/2 in.)

sheet: 38.4 x 28.8 cm (15 1/8 x 11 5/16 in.)
overall (external frame dimensions): 59.7 x 44.5 cm (23 1/2 x 17 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Rosenwald Collection

Catalogue Raisonné

Schreiber, Vol. IX, no. 1950, State b

Accession Number

1943.3.645

Artists / Makers

Hans Sporer (artist) German, active 1471/1526

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

at top, on banderole, in block: Das ist die mapa mu di un alle land un kungkreich wie sie ligend in der gatze welt; at bottom center, on banderole, in block: hanns prief maler

Provenance

Inserted in Latin Bible printed by Johann Zainer, Ulm, in 1480; library of Joachim von Watt [1484-1551], St. Gallen, Switzerland; passed at his death to Stiftsbibliothek Vadiana, St. Gallen; after 1927, Heinrich Rosenthal, Munich; before 1930, Dr. Otto H.F. Vollbehr, Washington, D.C.; sold at auction by Charles F. Heartman in 1932; purchased 1941 by Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], Jenkintown, PA ; gift to NGA, 1943.

Associated Names

Rosenwald, Lessing Julius

Exhibition History

1960: Graphic Masterpieces of 500 Years from the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection, Louisiana State University Library, Baton Rouge, 1960, no. 2.

1965: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Metalcuts from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, NGA, 1965-1966, no. 280, repro.

1965: Master Prints from the Rosenwald Collection, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1965, no. 17.

1990: Gardens on Paper: Prints and Drawings, 1200-1900, NGA, 1990, no. 2, repro.

2005: Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public, NGA and Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 2005-2006, no. 55, repro.

2012: Imperial Augsburg: Renaissance Prints and Drawings, 1475-1540, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 2012-2014, no. 6.

Bibliography

1926: Schreiber, Wilhelm Ludwig. Handbuch de Holz- und Metailschnitte des XV Jahrhunderts. 8 vols. Leipzig: Verlag Karl W. Hierseman, 1926-1930.

1965: Field, Richard S. Fifteenth Century Woodcuts and Metalcuts from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. Exh. cat. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1965.

1990: Clayton, Virginia Tuttle. Gardens on Paper: Prints and Drawings, 1200-1900. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1990: 2.