Christ on the Cross

Unknown artist

The artist copied Dürer’s “Christ on the Cross,” but probably not according to the woodcut belonging to the “Little Passion,” but after a smaller copy of Johann Ulrich Kraus (cf. I E 39b-ba of the State Library Bamberg). The copyist also translated the motif into deep print and shows in the center the cross with the lifeless body of Christ. 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 armed men are on the left, the mourners are gathered on the 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. Neither references to Dürer as the spiritual creator of the image idea nor to the actual artist or the time of creation are integrated into the representation.