Title Page of The Large Passion

In 1511 in Nuremberg, Germany, a series of 12 woodcuts on the Passion of Christ by Albrecht Dürer were printed. Nuremberg was, of course, an influential Renaissance city and the birthplace of Albrecht Dürer. The woodcuts were printed by Hieronymus Höltzel.

The title page of the book features an illustration of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, seated on a stone bench. This illustration for the title page of The Large Passion is deeply touching. The text of the book appears to have been in Latin. The depiction of Christ as Man of Sorrows cannot fail to make an impression. Although they were originally woodcuts, the artist Albrecht Dürer was at his masterful best. Christ sits on the stone bench, bearing his wounds. A man kneels before him offering him a tree branch. One can see the instruments of Christ's torture, the nails, lying on the ground. Christ bears the crucifixion wounds on his hands and feet. Yet this is the Man of Sorrows we see, not the glorious Christ of the Resurrection.

Is this Albrecht Dürer's way of telling us that Christ is continually crucified by sinful man? This is a print of a woodcut. The original woodcut would have also shown Albrecht Dürer's wonderful attention to detail. While Albrecht Dürer had a lot of religious art in his body of work, he worked on secular projects too. Throughout his career, he received stipends from patrons from time to time. Yet he didn't depend solely on patrons for his income. Being the Renaissance type of man that he was, he looked into the concepts of self-promotion. He was keen to get his woodcuts into print. The reason for this was because it would be much easier to distribute them to the public.

He sold copies of his prints far and wide through a network of contacts. He was the one behind getting his Large Passion into print form. This was to be the way to sell and distribute copies of his work. He got his work into the hands of common people. He made a living by selling his work directly to the public. He was less dependent on stipends and retained full artistic freedom. Also, you could say that he popularised art so that it reached the masses in a direct way. He was a typical Renaissance. Artist, painter, mathematician, writer. He was, by what we can understand, a shrewd businessman too.