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 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/passiochristidieOOdure 
 
PASSIO CHRISTI. 
 
 Hir hlcinc passion. 
 
 THE LITTLE PASSION 
 
 OF 
 
 'lUbcrt JS'iircr 
 
 REPRODUCED IN FAC-SIMILE. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 W. C . PRIME. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 J. W. BOUTON, 416 BROOME STREET. 
 
 1868. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
 
 w. c . PRIME, 
 
 in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
 
 District of New York. 
 
 Reproduction by Photographic Process and 
 Printing by the New York Lithographing, Engraving and Printing Co. 
 16 & 18 Park Place. 
 
THE LITTLE PASSION. 
 


 
 
 
 
N presenting this volume 
 to the American public I 
 have had a double object. 
 The series of illustrations is 
 not unfamiliar to European 
 eyes, since various editions, 
 copies and reproductions 
 have been published on the 
 continent and in England. But it may be safely 
 said, that the wood-cuts of Albert Durer are almost 
 unknown to Americans. There cannot be, in this 
 country, more than two or three complete sets of 
 the thirty-seven illustrations known as the Eittle 
 
6 
 
 Passion. Few, indeed, are to be found anywhere. The 
 first object then may challenge criticism. It is simply 
 to place in the hands of Americans, whether lovers 
 of art or those seeking information, the works of a 
 great master, works of exceeding force and beauty, 
 full of suggestion, full of passionate devotion. In all 
 the history of illustration there is no such series as 
 this, no collection by any one artist more worthy of 
 study, more rich in wonderful thought. 
 
 The second object of this publication is some- 
 what different. A great improvement in the art of 
 illustration is an object of interest to all lovers of the 
 beautiful. There is no more fitting method of 
 
 introducing it to them than by dedicating it to the 
 reproduction of the works of a great master, and 
 especially of a master who may be rightly regarded 
 as the originator of almost all that is beautiful in wood 
 engraving. 
 
 From time to time during the past ten years 
 processes have been introduced to the world whose 
 object is the reproduction of drawings, engravings 
 
7 
 
 and other illustrations. That which is used in the 
 present volume is one of the latest, and its success 
 is visible to the eyes of the reader. Had it been 
 known in the time of Albert Durer he would not have 
 needed to employ the wood engraver for the purpose 
 of multiplying impressions of his noble drawings. 
 The process of making them would have been more 
 simple and rapid. The drawing would have been 
 photographed in a few minutes, and the photograph, 
 being taken in transfer ink, would in a few minutes 
 more have been impressed on stone, from which stone, 
 by the ordinary lithographic press, the work would 
 have been printed to any desired extent. Durer is not 
 living to increase the number of his works, but there 
 is no longer any reason why the vastly multiplied 
 population of lovers of art should not be supplied with 
 fac-simile copies of those works which are extant. 
 The process which is used in this volume furnishes 
 an exact copy of the original, without changing a line 
 or shade. The defects which are visible here and there 
 are defects in the original plates, accurately copied 
 
8 
 
 by this process. In short, this edition is “from the 
 original impressions 11 by the newly discovered art of 
 transferring with the aid of light. It is not improbable 
 that the present issue will be followed by other 
 reproductions of works of the early masters. 
 
 Having thus stated the objects of the publication, 
 it remains only to give a brief history of the Artist, his 
 art, and His work now republished. 
 
 ORE than four centuries have 
 passed since the readers of books 
 in Europe first saw them illustrated 
 with engravings. The invention of 
 
 O O 
 
 printing with moveable type sprang 
 from the previously existing art of 
 engraving on wood. Whether Guttenberg in Strasburg 
 and Mayence, or Koster in Harlem, be rightfully honored 
 as the inventor of the great art, there is no dispute that 
 for a long time previous to their first work there had 
 been wood engravers, and more or less books had been 
 printed and published, the pages being impressed from 
 
9 
 
 engraved blocks of wood. It does not concern our 
 
 O 
 
 present purpose to enumerate the block-books, of which 
 copies or fragments are extant, nor to discuss the dates 
 of their several productions. Not only books had been 
 thus published. It is evident that prints were issued 
 separately, and that in the early part of the fifteenth 
 if not in the fourteenth century, the people of Europe 
 were somewhat familiar with wood-cuts. The dates 
 may be stated in general as follows: In or soon after 
 
 the year 1400, wood engraving was known in Germany, 
 and block-books were published, the illustrations and 
 text being engraved on the same block. About the 
 middle of the fifteenth century printing with moveable 
 and metallic types began to be practised. A few years 
 later wood-cuts were used for the illustration of books 
 which were printed with moveable type. 
 
 The earliest known wood-cut which bears a date 
 is a large, rude, but forcible representation of St. 
 Christopher, bearing the child Christ across the stream. 
 This cut is eleven and a quarter inches high, by eight 
 and an eighth inches in width. It is dated 1423. 
 
IO 
 
 The earliest book, printed from moveable type and 
 illustrated with wood-cuts, is a book of Fables, printed 
 by Pfister, at Bamberg, in 1461. It should be remarked 
 however, that ornamental initial letters, engraved on 
 wood blocks, were used at an earlier date. 
 
 The first printing was intended to be and was a 
 close imitation of manuscript, in the style of the most 
 highly esteemed specimens. The first block-books, 
 uniting the illustration with the description, were of 
 course made by drawing on the wood-block the 
 illustration, writing in reverse the description, and then 
 cutting away the wood where not covered with the 
 lines of manuscript and illustration. The custom of 
 beautifying and illuminating manuscripts had prevailed 
 from the remotest periods. The early Egyptian papyri 
 give us abundant examples. In the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries the art of illuminating manuscripts 
 had been brought to very great perfection. The initial 
 letters of chapters were frequently elaborate, and some- 
 times contained exquisitely colored miniatures of heads 
 or of groups, flowers, arabesques, and quite often 
 
grotesque designs. It naturally came to pass, that 
 immediately alter the invention of printing with move- 
 able type, the idea of engraving ornamental initial 
 letters to imitate the manuscripts was seized upon. 
 Many of the early books were printed with blanks 
 where the illuminator was expected to insert the initial 
 letter, ornamented to suit the taste and wishes or the 
 purse of the possessor of the volume. Other books 
 were printed with ornamented initials, and the variety 
 and beauty of these soon became very great. More 
 taste and skill was exhibited by the early wood engravers 
 in this work than in general illustration, and the im- 
 provement in the art of engraving these letters was 
 more rapid and marked than in other departments of 
 the art. It is frequently a matter of surprise, that the 
 tasteful and careful printers of the day could see their 
 books ornamented with such fine designs in the initials 
 and be content with the coarse and rude works which 
 for a long period served the purposes of general 
 illustration. 
 
 A few specimens of ornaments of pages and initial 
 
letters have been selected from works published about 
 the time of Albert Durer, and used in this volume, not 
 as exhibiting any history of progress in the art, but 
 merely as affording a few examples, in absolute fac- 
 simile, of different styles of ornament of the period. 
 Hundreds of other varieties might be given. Title 
 pages to books were unknown until toward the close 
 of the fifteenth century, when it began to become 
 common to ornament the title page with wood-cut 
 borders, and from this followed rapidly the plan of 
 ornamenting other pages, by surrounding the type with 
 borders. In all these styles of beautifying books the 
 wood engravers seem to have had great success, as great 
 indeed as has been achieved in later centuries. Perhaps 
 it was owing to the fact that their designs were but 
 copies of the existing illuminations of manuscripts which 
 abounded in so much beauty ; or it may have been due 
 to the employment, in this department, of men accus- 
 tomed to engraving type, who were in many instances 
 goldsmiths, or workmen in gold and silver, and thus 
 familiar with the art of exquisite chasing in metals. 
 
Whatever the explanation, it is quite certain that wood 
 engraving in general made little advance for a half 
 century, except in the ornaments of the pages by 
 initials and otherwise. The following cut, which is a 
 fac-simile from the Fasciculus Temporis , published in 
 14*77, serve to show the general character of the 
 illustration of that period, and the earliest style of wood 
 engraving for books. 
 
 This rude cut, it will be observed, is surrounded 
 
by a legend, which was set up in moveable type, the 
 whole being in the middle of a page in the volume. 
 It affords a fair specimen of the style of figure engraving 
 on wood of that date. The following cut from the 
 same volume, a representation of a citv, is an equally 
 fair specimen of the architectural and landscape work 
 of the time. 
 
 Between this time and the close of the century 
 there were some wood engravers who improved much 
 on the art. But none of them made any such striking 
 advance as to impress their style on cotemporaneous work, 
 
i5 
 
 until the time of Durer. 
 The Nuremberg Chronicle , 
 published in 1493, contains 
 an immense number of wood- 
 cuts, exhibiting in general 
 very little improved skill in 
 design or execution, but here 
 and there presenting a figure 
 or group which seems to have 
 come from the hand of a 
 master. Perhaps no more 
 fair specimen can be given 
 of the best style in this 
 celebrated book than the 
 accompanying fac-simile of 
 a picture of Noah. 
 
 Nevertheless there were, 
 at this period, in all parts of 
 Europe, men who were able 
 to be masters in the art, and 
 who seem only to have needed 
 
1 6 
 
 the example and lead of such an one as Albert Durer. 
 When they received this, the improvement was instan- 
 taneous. Within ten years the art was brought to a 
 degree of perfection which is astonishing when we 
 reflect on the long time during which it had languished. 
 The world began to be filled with illustrated books. 
 During the early part of the sixteenth century perhaps 
 as large a proportion of the printed books were 
 accompanied with illustrations as in any modern time. 
 And the effective character of these illustrations will 
 challenge comparison with productions of the art in 
 later times. 
 
 The reader who is familiar with the history of 
 wood engraving will pardon this detail, which is 
 designed for those who have not had the opportunity 
 of informing themselves on the subject. It seemed 
 necessary, for such persons, to give this much of the 
 history of the art, that they might obtain a correct 
 view of the importance which attaches to the wood- 
 cuts of Albert Durer. 
 
i7 
 
 UCH was the influence of 
 Durer on cotemporary art, 
 that although it is not to 
 be claimed that he was the 
 first wood engraver who 
 deserves rank as a master, 
 there is undeniable force in 
 the claim that Durer was 
 the first who sought how to make, and who succeeded 
 in making the wood-block the medium of conveying 
 to paper, impressions of drawings which, in spirit, tone 
 and color, approximated to the art of painting, an art 
 in which he was an acknowledged master. With his 
 great success as an engraver on copper we have nothing 
 to do in the present work. I have chosen to call Durer 
 a wood-engraver. There has been much paper wasted 
 in discussing the question whether he ever engraved 
 his own blocks, or whether he drew the pictures on 
 wood and left them to be cut by unknown workmen. 
 The question is about as important as whether Canova 
 or Crawford handled the chisel and hammer, and cut 
 
i8 
 
 his own statues irom the marble block. It is certain 
 that he drew on the wood-block and caused to be 
 engraved a style of work unknown before, and there 
 is no evidence to be found that he did not, if occasion 
 required it, use the knife himself to finish choice lines, 
 or to show the formschneider how best to execute the 
 new style of engraving which was given him to do. 
 It is evident from examination of existing blocks, that 
 some of them were engraved by different workmen. 
 It foil ows, that like modern artists on wood, he some- 
 times employed engravers to do his work. It is possible 
 that he did nothing more than direct the work, lending 
 such aid as he must necessarily do to carry out his 
 designs. It is possible that he sometimes did his own 
 engraving, but nothing can be affirmed with certainty 
 on this point. If Thorwaldsen was a sculptor, Durer 
 was a wood engraver. 
 
!9 
 
 LBERT DURER was born at 
 Nuremberg, May 20, 1471. Elis 
 father and his mother’s father 
 were goldsmiths. Goldsmiths in 
 that day were practical engravers, 
 and Durer worked at his father’s 
 trade until he was sixteen years old. Then, at the 
 son’s earnest request, his father placed him as a pupil 
 with Michael Wolgemuth to learn the art of painting. 
 
 It is hardly probable that we shall ever know 
 much about Wolgemuth. Some of the writers on 
 wood engraving in Europe are given more to criticising 
 and discrediting one another than to affording much 
 aid to the seeker after definite truth. One asserts that 
 Wolgemuth was an engraver on wood, and another 
 denies it. One asserts that he engraved on copper, 
 and another denies it. After reading a hall dozen 
 authors who have equal title to respect, the student 
 in the nineteenth century may well begin to doubt 
 whether Wolgemuth is not wholly a myth. We will 
 not enter on the discussion, but accept the naked fact, 
 
20 
 
 conceded by all, that Durer was his pupil, and that 
 in the blaze of the scholar’s fame the master’s was 
 darkened, so that he is nearly lost to history. Before 
 the close of the century, Durer had become the great 
 illustrator of his age. 
 
 H is earliest wood-cuts with a date are a series of 
 sixteen, known as the Apocalypse, and published at 
 Nuremberg in 1498. He had previously published 
 copperplate engravings, the first of which bearing a 
 date is of 1494. These cuts of the Apocalypse are 
 interesting as being the first of the improved age, the 
 great forerunners of wood engravings as illustrations 
 of exalted art. They gave a new impetus to illustrative 
 work. Their effect is visible in the productions of co- 
 temporary artists, and they may be looked on as forming 
 the first of the long series of wood engravings which 
 deserve rank with the finest products of the pencil or 
 the burin. 
 
 In 1510, Durer published a series of eleven large 
 wood engravings, entitled Passio Domini nostri Jesu,&c. 
 This series is generally known as the Great Passion. 
 
It was followed very shortly by the series of thirty-seven 
 cuts which are given in the present volume, and which 
 Durer himself called The Little Passion, Die kleine 
 Passion , distinguishing it thus from the larger series 
 of eleven. 
 
 The first issue of these cuts appears to have been 
 without letterpress accompanying them. I am not aware 
 of the existence at present of any complete copy of that 
 edition, nor is it altogether certain that they were pub- 
 lished as a book. Among the examples of Durer ’s 
 works in my possession are twenty of this first issue, 
 without the letterpress on the back. The first issue 
 did not include the title page with the seated figure 
 of Christ. The dates 1509, 1510, which are found 
 on some of the cuts, fix the period of the work, and 
 they may therefore be regarded as specimens of the 
 artist’s ability in the zenith of his fame. The second 
 edition was published by Durer shortly after the first, 
 and in this appeared the seated figure of Christ, while 
 he also accompanied the cuts with Latin verses, by 
 Chelidonius, printed on the backs of the engravings. 
 
22 
 
 The wood-blocks seem to have been lost sight 
 of after this for a hundred years, but in 1612 an 
 edition was published by Basuccio in Venice, from the 
 original blocks. It is said these had been purchased in 
 the Netherlands. 
 
 In 1839, a part of the original blocks came into 
 possession of the British Museum, by purchase, from 
 the son of a deceased clergyman of England, who had 
 bought them some years previously in Italy. In 1844 
 an edition was published in London. It was not 
 printed directly from the blocks, which had become 
 somewhat worm-eaten, and more or less worn and 
 broken, but from stereotype casts taken from the blocks, 
 and retouched and repaired by a distinguished wood 
 engraver. It may thus be said, that four editions have 
 been published substantially from the original blocks. 
 Besides these however, the copies, reproductions and 
 imitations of this series, or of portions of it, have been 
 very numerous. During the lifetime of Durer, Marc 
 Antonio, in Venice, published his remarkable fac- 
 similes of them on copper, a reproduction which 
 
2 3 
 
 excited the indignation of Durer. Hence is said to 
 have arisen one of the earliest cases of copyright 
 prosecution, when Durer sought justice from the 
 Venetian authorities. Unhappily there is no existing 
 report of the case, and it is even doubtful whether the 
 whole story is not mythical. 
 
 Other artists copied Durer in his own day, and 
 shortly after his death. Laurence Hopfer made some 
 very close copies of a portion of this series, substituting 
 his initials L. H. for the monogram of Durer. 
 
 But it was not in copying his works that artists 
 most distinctly acknowledged the superiority of the 
 master. It was rather in the immediate adoption of 
 his instruction, which began to be visible from the 
 time of his earliest publications, and increased rapidly 
 to the period of his death. In any collection of wood- 
 cuts, extending down to the year 1530, Durer seems 
 to be the teacher to whom all others were looking, and 
 toward whom they endeavored to approximate in style 
 and effect. There had been great masters before him, 
 and there were cotemporary artists who worked in 
 
24 - 
 
 copperplate, who were the equals, and even the 
 superiors of the Nuremberg illustrator. But in the 
 art of wood engraving, in which, far more than in 
 copper or steelplate engraving, the artist is enabled to 
 throw his soul into the picture, and the world is 
 subsequently able to read that soul, there had been 
 no one to compare with him. Before his day a wood 
 engraving had been the picture of one simple idea, but 
 Durer made it a poem, even an epic. 
 
 Durer died in 1528. His fame and his influence 
 on art survived and increased from year to year. Many 
 of the strongest effects produced by wood engraving, 
 even in our own day, are due to a careful study and close 
 following of the example of the great German master, 
 and a return to his bold and vigorous style from the 
 comparatively effeminate manner of a portion of the 
 modern school. 
 
25 
 
 ERTAINLY it would be folly 
 to attempt an analysis of the 
 merits of the drawings of Durer 
 herewith presented to the reader. 
 If they do not repay a studious 
 examination no aid would be 
 derived from any letterpress assistance. One remark 
 on this subject seems all sufficient. It is not often that 
 the eye rests on a wood-cut which produces a lasting 
 impression on the mind. But however rude or even 
 grotesque the work of Durer may seem, it is hardly 
 possible to look at one of these cuts and turn away 
 to forget it. The strong lines of the artist imprint 
 their ideas on the mind of the beholder, who will 
 hardly be able to forget any one of the figures, or to 
 lose the emotional effect of the group. There is a 
 union of the most profound tenderness of expression 
 with a bold and free treatment of the subjects which 
 has never been surpassed, if ever equalled by any artist 
 on wood or metal. I think that in the kneeling figure 
 of the Virgin parting with her Son and Lord, (No. 6,) 
 
26 
 
 there is as much emotion, love, reverence and grief 
 combined, as in any existing work however elaborate. 
 Yet of the person of the mother there is visible nothing 
 more than her clasped and uplifted hands and a dark 
 dim outline of a clouded face. 
 
I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 ^ V. 
 " VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 ^ X. 
 
 XL 
 - XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 XIV. 
 ■" XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE LITTLE PASSION. 
 
 Title page of the second edition. 
 
 — Christ mourning over the sins of man. 
 
 The Lall of man. — Adam and Eve receiving the apple. 
 The Curse. — Adam and Eve expelled from Eden. 
 
 The Annunciation. 
 
 The Nativity. 
 
 Christ taking leave of his mother Mary. 
 
 Christ entering Jerusalem in triumph. 
 
 Christ scourging the money changers from the Temple. 
 The Last Supper. 
 
 Christ washing the feet of the disciples. 
 
 The Agony in the garden. 
 
 The Betrayal by Judas. 
 
 Christ brought before the high priest. 
 
 Christ blindfolded and buffeted. 
 
 Christ conducted to Pilate. 
 
 Christ dragged before Herod. 
 
28 
 
 XVII. 
 ^ XVIII. 
 XIX. 
 XX. 
 XXI. 
 XXII. 
 XXIII. 
 ^ XXIV. 
 XXV. 
 XXVI. 
 " XXVII. 
 XXVIII. 
 - XXIX. 
 XXX. 
 XXXI. 
 XXXII. 
 XXXIII. 
 XXXIV 
 XXXV. 
 XXXIV. 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Christ brought again before Pilate. 
 
 The Flagellation. 
 
 Christ crowned with thorns. 
 
 Ecce Homo. — Christ exhibited to the people. 
 
 Christ led away — Pilate washing his hands. 
 
 Christ falling under the Cross. 
 
 St. Veronica with the sudarium, between Peter and Paul. 
 Christ nailed to the Cross. 
 
 The Crucifixion. 
 
 Christ in Hades. 
 
 The Descent from the Cross. 
 
 The Mourning of the Holy Women over the dead Christ. 
 The Entombment. 
 
 The Resurrection. 
 
 Christ appearing to his mother Mary. 
 
 Christ appearing to Mary Magdalen in the garden. 
 
 The Supper at Emmaus. 
 
 The Incredulity of Thomas. 
 
 The Ascension. 
 
 The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The Judgment of all men. 
 
gaflio £bri(tiabBbmo %>\xm 
 
 K renbergenfi cfftgfata cu van jgenevis carmi 
 nibus Fratris Benedidti Qielidoni j 
 Mufophdu 
 
 O cruets O mortis caufa cruenta rmhit 
 Ohomo fat fuerit.tibi me femel ifta tuliffe? 
 O ce(Ta culpis me craciare nouis, 
 
II 
 
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