Menu
Reward Card
 
 
 
Home | Latest News | Illustrating the World: Woodcuts in the Age of Dürer

Illustrating the World: Woodcuts in the Age of Dürer

This is a rare opportunity to view the complete set of woodcuts known as The Great Passion, produced by the most famed artist of the German Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). During the 15th-century the woodcut technique became highly practiced throughout Europe, mainly in the form of cheap and mass-produced decorative or devotional images, made in monastic workshops or by independent craftsmen, including playing-cards makers.

With the spread of the movable-type press in the second half of the 15th-century, woodcuts became the preferred means of illustrating books. The vast variety of texts being printed required artists to create brand new iconographies. The publication of the lavishly illustrated Nuremberg Chronicle in 1493 set a new standard for illustrated books both for its quality and production process. Publishers started hiring renowned artists to devise iconographic programs. Young Dürer was an apprentice at the Nuremberg workshop while this masterpiece was being produced, possibly contributing to it.

Just three years later, Dürer started working on his Great Passion cycle. He was the first artist in history to devise, create and publish an illustrated book, pushing the limits of a quintessentially linear art to create vividly animated scenes. With its rise in status, the woodcut was soon recognized as a powerful tool to reach a wide public, and evolved into a medium used for civic promotion, political and religious propaganda, and the sharing of ideas and information.

Back to latest news
Web design by Creatomatic | © 2025 Bath Self Catering
Photography by Ed Collacott.
Visit England AA PASC Member
This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience. We use necessary cookies to make sure that our website works. We’d also like to set analytics cookies that help us make improvements by measuring how you use the site. By clicking “Allow All”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyse site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
These cookies are required for basic functionalities such as accessing secure areas of the website, remembering previous actions and facilitating the proper display of the website. Necessary cookies are often exempt from requiring user consent as they do not collect personal data and are crucial for the website to perform its core functions.
A “preferences” cookie is used to remember user preferences and settings on a website. These cookies enhance the user experience by allowing the website to remember choices such as language preferences, font size, layout customization, and other similar settings. Preference cookies are not strictly necessary for the basic functioning of the website but contribute to a more personalised and convenient browsing experience for users.
A “statistics” cookie typically refers to cookies that are used to collect anonymous data about how visitors interact with a website. These cookies help website owners understand how users navigate their site, which pages are most frequently visited, how long users spend on each page, and similar metrics. The data collected by statistics cookies is aggregated and anonymized, meaning it does not contain personally identifiable information (PII).
Marketing cookies are used to track user behaviour across websites, allowing advertisers to deliver targeted advertisements based on the user’s interests and preferences. These cookies collect data such as browsing history and interactions with ads to create user profiles. While essential for effective online advertising, obtaining user consent is crucial to comply with privacy regulations.