New Testament Scene, plate thirteen from Woodcuts from Books of the XVI Century
- Medium
- Woodcut in black ink with brush and opaque watercolor and stenciling on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 11.1 × 15 cm (4 3/8 × 5 15/16 in.); Image/text: 25.7 × 15.7 cm (10 1/8 × 6 3/16 in.); Sheet: 31 × 20.2 cm (12 1/4 × 8 in.)
- Genre
- Woodcut
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
printprints and drawingwoodcut (process)woodcutpaper (fiber product)
About
Like the nearby Gutenberg Bible leaf (1922.2210), this page from an illustrated German summary of the New Testament for young readers was disbound and repurposed. In 1937 the print scholar Max Geisberg employed it as a plate in his portfolio Woodcuts from Books of the 16th Century. The crisp edges of the hand coloring suggest it was applied by stencil, as in the larger Mary Magdalene woodcut hanging nearby (2014.133). The use of stencils reinforces the fact that the book appeared in several large editions. The separate woodcut borders and large initial D beginning the text similarly suggest an expensive publication.