| Method | Woodcut |
| Artist | Albrecht Dürer |
| Published | c.1497-9 [after 1600 impression] |
| Dimensions | Image 390 x 280 mm, Sheet 525 x 345 mm |
| Notes |
One of Dürer's earliest large-scale woodcuts, concentrating on the events immediately preceding the martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria. The saint was a very popular figure of veneration in Nuremberg in Dürer's day, having risen in prominence as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers during the Black Death, and considered second only to the Virgin Mary as a symbol of feminine piety and purity. In most hagiographies, the Saint was thought to have been martyred by the Emperor Maxentius at the beginning of the fourth century. The daughter of the governor of Alexandria, she was said to have converted to Christianity in her early teens and at the outbreak of Maxentius' persecutions, she upbraided the emperor, causing him to demand that she defend her beliefs before a council of fifty of his best philosophers. The strength of her argument, combined with her religious conviction, astonished her listeners, many of whom converted and were subsequently put to death. The Emperor changed tactics, offering marriage, but upon hearing her refusal, sentenced Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel. The young woman was not cowed, and instead reached out a hand towards the wheel, shattering it. Maxentius, refusing to accept the clearly divine intervention in his plans, had her beheaded. Catherine's story is apocryphal, and many commentators have pointed to the similarities between her life and fate and those of the Alexandrine neoplatonist philosopher Hypatia, who was murdered by a Christian mob allegedly encouraged by the rhetoric of Bishop Cyril, the Patriarch of Alexandria. The involvement of Maxentius in Catherine's martyrdom also provides a spiritual justification for the loss of both his empire and his life at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, at the hands of Constantine fighting under the banner of Christ. In Dürer's composition, the Saint crouches in prayer before the broken wheel, while her executioner draws a long sword in readiness. The rest of the scene is occupied by a representation of one of the medieval traditions from Catherine's life, in which a shower of holy fire rained down upon the assembled crowd, killing many of the pagans but leaving Catherine unharmed. The fire surrounding the Saint and the wheel may be a conflation of the martyr stories of Catherine of Siena, who, while praying, was caught in a kitchen fire but emerged unharmed, or may simply be an illustration of the utter destruction of the instrument of torture at the touch of one so gentle and pure. Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) was a celebrated German polymath. Though primarily a painter, printmaker and graphic artist, he was also a writer, mathematician and theoretician. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer was apprenticed to the painter Michel Wolgemut whose workshop produced woodcut illustrations for major books and publications. He travelled widely between the years of 1492 and 1494, and is known to have visited Martin Schongauer, the leading German painter and engraver at the time, at his studio in Colmar. In 1495, Dürer set up his own workshop in his native Nuremberg, and, by the beginning of the sixteenth-century, had already published three of his most famous series' of woodcuts: The Apocalypse, The Large Passion, and The Life of the Virgin. Nuremberg was something of a hub for Humanism at this time, and Dürer was privy to the teachings of Philipp Melanchthon, Willibald Pirkheimer and Desiderius Erasmus. The latter went so far as to call Dürer 'the Apelles of black lines', a reference to the most famous ancient Greek artist. Though Dürer's approach to Protestantism was not as staunch as that of his fraternity, his artwork was just as revolutionary. For their technical virtuosity, intellectual scope, and psychological depth, Dürer's works were unmatched by earlier printed work, and, arguably, have yet to be equalled. Hollstein 236, Meder 236, g (of g) (however this impression printed on thin laid paper not the thick, felt-like paper after 1700 as called for by Meder) Condition: Printed on laid paper. Dirt build-up to sheet, particularly to edges. Pressed horizontal crease to sheet. Chips, creases, and folds to margins. |
| Framing | framed |
| Price | £2,200.00 |
| Stock ID | 51794 |