Saint Stephen, Sixtus and Saint Lawrence

Unknown artist

The artist copied Dürer’s 1504/05 designed woodcut, “The Holy Stephanus, Sixtus and Laurentius.” Although he translated him into the technique of etching, the orientation on the template is clearly visible. Three martyrs are standing in a hall opened by a roundbow. Pope Sixtus is at the center and holds a purse as an attribute. Laurentius with a closed book under his arm and the rust as an instrument of his martyrdom is facing his mentor. After he did not want to issue the church treasure that Pope Sixtus had given him for the distribution of arms at the emperor’s insistence, he was roasted and followed Sixtus into martyrdom. On the other hand, Stephanus stands with the Martyrs' Palace. The three saints take the picture almost completely. While the monogram refers to Dürer as the spiritual creator of the image idea, there is no evidence of the actual artist and the time of creation. Heller writes in 1827: “From this copy one also has Gegendrücke” (Heller Dürer 1827 II.676.1877).