Map of the World

c. 1480

Hans Sporer

Artist, German, active 1471/1526

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

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

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • 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.)

  • Accession

    1943.3.645

  • Catalogue Raisonné

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

Artwork history & notes

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

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

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

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

1971

  • A Selection of Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Book Prints from the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, 1971, no. 1, repro.

1985

  • Landscape Prints from the National Gallery's Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1985, no cat.

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.

Inscriptions

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

Watermarks

none visible

Wikidata ID

Q64953148

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