Christ on the Cross

Unknown artist

The artist copied Dürer’s woodcut “Christ on the Cross,” designed around 1509, part of its “Kleinen Passion,” which was first laid out in 1511, from the original page. The orientation of 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. Although there is no evidence of Dürer as the intellectual creator of the image idea, the combination of letters, “VS,” is integrated into the representation that 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.