1515
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Fall and Redemption of Man: The Message of the Angel to Joachim is a 1515 by Albrecht Altdorfer, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
The woodcut shows an angel flying over a kneeling man in a German forest. The angel holds a scroll with a message. Trees fill the background, their trunks dark and sharp. Altdorfer carved this image as part of a set of forty woodcuts about Christian redemption. The prints were made from eight woodblocks, each sheet holding four images. They were later cut into single prints. This quiet scene shows how woodcuts could tell big stories. Look up Albrecht Altdorfer (German, c. 1480–1538) to see more of his work.
These eight woodcuts come from a series of forty which illustrate the story of Christian redemption from original sin to the Last Judgement. Probably to maximize printing efficiency and quality, eight woodblocks were printed on each of five sheets of paper, but the subjects are not in the correct chronological order. Prior to sale, the sheets were cut into eight pieces. The sheets in the museum's set were only cut in half, preserving four prints per page. The numbers after the titles of the individual images indicate each scene's place within the narrative. By 1513, Altdorfer had already…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480 – 12 February 1538) was a German painter, engraver and architect of the Renaissance working in Regensburg. Along with Lucas Cranach the Elder and Wolf Huber he is regarded to be the main…
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