The Nativity and Passion of Christ

1511

Wolf Traut

Associated Names
Wolf Traut

Artist, German, c. 1486 - 1520

This drawing features various narrative scenes packed with characters, architecture, and text. There are rectangular panels displaying sequential scenes at the top. Lines lead to a hand surrounded by clouds or rays at a focal point. A larger central panel depicts a figure in front of an architectural setting, possibly a stable or barn, with beams of light. The sides show groups of figures, some in religious garb or holding symbolic objects. The bottom features detailed text, possibly scripted to provide context or narration for the scenes above.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut printed from fifteen blocks on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 43.5 × 58.7 cm (17 1/8 × 23 1/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.8127

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Hollstein, no. 27-41, State only

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], 1929; gift to NGA, 1943.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1953

  • Nuremberg and the German World, Los Angeles County Museum, 1953-1954, no cat.

1954

  • De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, and University of Arizona, Tuscon, AZ, 1954, no cat.

  • Early German Prints, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR, 1954, no cat.

1955

  • J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville, KY, 1955, no cat.

Bibliography

1949

  • Hollstein's German Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts, 1400-1700. Vol. XCIV (Wolf Traut, Dieter Beaujean, author). Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel: Sound & Vision Publishers, 2019, nos. 27-41, state only.

Inscriptions

on banderole at left, in block: Nos miseri exules e peregrini in hoc seculo; on banderole at right, in block: Q' diu in hac vita sumus peregrinamur a dno; printed in letterpress at bottom of broadsheet: [a prayer beginning: O her iesv criste...]; verso, upper center, in graphite by a later hand: N [illegible]; upper right, in graphite by a later hand:[struckthrough in graphite: No. 214]; lower left, in graphite by a later hand: AD; bottom center, in graphite by a later hand: Wolf Traut 1511 / Pass. 265 D.I.515 No.8

Watermarks

tree surmounted by crown and star

Wikidata ID

Q65027020

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