Pilatus wäscht sich die Hände

Unknown artist

The artist copied Dürer’s woodcut “Pilate washing his hands,” designed around 1509, part of his “Kleinen Passion,” which was first laid in 1511, from the opposite side. Despite side traffic and motif changes, e.g. the architecture is opened, the orientation on the template is clearly visible. The copyist shows Pilate sitting under a canopy raised by a pedestal. Supported by two servants, he washes his hands into innocence. Meanwhile, Christ is lead away by two armed henchmen. There are no references to Dürer as the intellectual creator of the image idea, but the letter combination “VS” at the bottom left of the middle refers to the Nuremberg artist Virgil Solis. Deductions with German letter text on the back bear witness to the once belonging of the woodcut to a book.