Christ in Limbo

1510

Albrecht Dürer

Associated Names
Albrecht Dürer

Artist, German, 1471 - 1528

This is a print featuring various humans and demonic creatures. In the center, a bearded man with pale skin kneels, his head surrounded by rays of light. His chest is mostly bare, and a long cloth is draped across one of his shoulders and around his waist. He is reaching down towards people in the bottom right corner who appear to be on a lower level, trapped behind an arched opening in a stone wall. The people look up at him, raising their hands toward him, and he grabs one of their arms. Higher up on the right side, demonic creatures look out of openings in the stone wall at the man below. They have horns, snouts, and wings, each creature slightly different. One of them extends a long spear towards the central man. Behind him, on the left, is a procession of several nude people, including men, women, and children. At the front of the procession, an old man holds up a tall cross, and a long banner extends up behind the central man. The scene appears to take place in a stone cave with an arched opening on the left. In the bottom left corner, a hinged wooden door lays broken.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    image/block: 39.7 × 28.4 cm (15 5/8 × 11 3/16 in.)
    sheet: 41.7 × 29.5 cm (16 7/16 × 11 5/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.3624

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Meder, no. 121

  • Series Title

    The Large Passion


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], Jenkintown, PA (Lugt 1760b and Lugt 1932d); gift to NGA, 1943.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1958

  • Magnifying the Bible through Art, Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Nashville, TN, 1958.

1970

  • Albrecht Dürer, 1471-1528: A Study Exhibition of Print Connoisseurship, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1970-1971, no. 43A.

Bibliography

1932

  • Meder, Joseph. Dürer-Katalog; ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustände, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen. Vienna: Verlag Gilhofer und Ranschburg, 1932. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.

2001

  • Schoch, Rainer, Mattihas Mende, and Anna Scherbaum. Albrecht Dürer: Das druckgraphische Werk. Munich, 2001: vol. 2: no. 164.

Inscriptions

verso, upper left, in graphite by a later hand: 14; upper left, in red crayon by a later hand: 167; bottom left, in graphite by a later hand: B 14; bottom left, in graphite by a later hand: 12

Watermarks

name of Mary (Meder 316)

Wikidata ID

Q18338558

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