Christ on the Cross

Unknown artist

The artist copied Dürer’s woodcut “Christ on the Cross,” designed around 1509, part of his “Kleinen Passion,” which was first laid in 1511, from the original page. Although he transferred it to the technique of copper engraving, the orientation on the template is clearly visible. The copyist shows the cross with the lifeless body of Christ at the center of the night scene. The bleeding side wound emphatically retrieves the jellyfish. The night scene serves as a light source for a radiant crusade, announces the overcoming of death and illuminates the image personnel. While there are armed men on his left, the mourners are gathered on his right. Three women turn to each other in quiet despair, John throwing the arms of heaven plainly, and Mary Magdalene sinks at the feet of the dead home. Instead of the Dürer monogram, the empty beetle - sign Marcantonio Raimondis - is integrated into the representation. Bartsch mentions three states of Raimondi’s sequence of passage after Dürer (cf. Bartsch XIV.401).