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

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.3624

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Meder, no. 121


Artwork history & notes

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.

Wikidata ID

Q18338558

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