Foot washing

Unknown artist

The artist copied Dürer’s woodcut “Die Foot Washing,” part of his “Kleinen Passion,” designed around 1508/09, from the opposite side and translated it into the technique of copper engraving. The orientation of the template is clearly visible. As in the original, the copist shows the main scene in the foreground of a space illuminated by the two candles of a ceiling lamp. Christ kneels on the ground, has a apron tied around his hip and bends over the water bowl in which he washes the feet of Peter sitting opposite him. This grabs the forehead in a embarrassing way. John appears as a helper and holds a pot and cloth behind Christ. The surrounding apostles react to the events by turning to each other, talking to each other and gesturing. While at the bottom left the monogram refers to Dürer as the spiritual creator of the image idea, no references to the actual artist and the time of creation are integrated.