ALBRECHT ALTDORFER (CIRCA 1480-1538)

Albrecht Altdorfer's series of forty small woodcuts is one of greatest achievements in the history of woodcut printing. Conceived as a small book for private contemplation and devotion, it was published without text and presumably intended for a poorer, perhaps illiterate, audience. To tell the story of the Fall of Man and the Passion of Christ in pocket size, Altdorfer condensed each scene to it's essentials, thereby achieving a remarkable monumentality, despite the diminutive scale of the images, while at the same time lovingly describing tiny details. Although it may have been created for humble people, there is nothing crude or cursory about these images. Instead, these prints are of an elegance rarely achieved by another artist in the medium. While Altdorfer's designs are certainly admirable, it is also worth remembering the virtuosity required of the anonymous woodcutter to carve these tiny blocks with such clarity and regularity in the finest details and densest hatchings, which lend the series such dramatic effects of light and shade.

The exquisite quality of these woodcuts can really only be appreciated in early impressions, such as the ones in the present set.