Christ on the Cross

1486/1488

German 15th Century

Associated Names
This print depicts three people. The central person is a man fully suspended on a large wooden cross, with arms his outstretched and palms nailed to the cross. His head is tilted downward and his eyes are closed. The man has long, wavy hair adorned with a crown of thorns, a short beard, and is mostly unclothed, with a wrinkled cloth tied around his waist. To the left is a person with their head covered in a long cloth, wearing a draped garment. They wear a neutral expression and have a halo around their head, and their head is slightly turned toward the central man. To the right is another figure with a halo and long, curly hair who is wearing a draped robe and holding a book. This person has hollow cheekbones and looks slightly upward towards the center of the print. The ground the figures stand on is rocky, and there are a skull and some stones at the base of the cross. The sky behind the group of people is blank.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.72

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Schreiber, no. 379


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Weiss & Co., Munich); Martin Aufhäuser [1875-1944], Munich, Holland, and Los Angeles; [1] purchased 19 August 1939 by Lessing J. Rosenwald, Jenkintown, PA (L1760c and L1932d); gift to NGA, 1943.
[1] For more information on Aufhäuser's collection, see Gallery Archives, National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Papers, Box 9; Lessing J. Rosenwald, Recollections of a Collector, Jenkintown, Pa, 1976, pp. 14-18, and Richard S. Field, Fifteenth Century Woodcuts and Metalcuts, Washington, D.C., 1965, Preface (np).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1965

  • Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Metalcuts from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, NGA, 1965-1966, no. 52, repro.

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: no. 52.

Wikidata ID

Q64952873

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