- Museum number
- 1919,0616.37
- Title
- Object: [The Hand of God, or an invitation to prayer]
- Description
-
Broadside with a prayer and meditation on the incarnation and suffering of Christ; with woodcut illustrations printed from 15 blocks including a hand of God pointing at eleven scenes from Christ's Passion largely copied after Albrecht Dürer (Meder 125-161) and arranged along upper edge; at lower centre the Nativity with approaching shepherds; at lower left a group of praying clergy headed by the pope; at right praying laymen headed by the emperor; with a 20 line xylographic prayer underneath the Nativity at lower centre. (n.p.: 1511)
Watermark: tower and crown (Hausmann 27)
- Production date
- 1511
- Dimensions
-
Height: 186 millimetres (Clerics and laymen, c.)
-
Height: 80 millimetres (Nativity)
-
Height: 72 millimetres (Passion scenes, c.)
-
Height: 434 millimetres (Sheet size)
-
Width: 134 millimetres
-
Width: 314 millimetres
-
Width: 588 millimetres
-
Width: 62 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- BM also has another impression of the Nativity, see 1895,0122.754, as well as of the group of clergy, see 1904,0519.12.
Text from Bartrum 1995
Literature: C.Dodgson, I, p. 515, 8 (Nativity from a different impression)
This broadsheet is one of Traut's finest prints. It demonstrates clearly the practical function of broadsheets in a semi-literate society. The woodcuts are placed around a German prayer, which begins "O Lord Jesus Christ a son of the Living God ..." and tells of Christ's birth and the redemption of mankind through his Passion. The Nativity with an Adoration of the Shepherds is represented in the centre, above which a hand is shown indicating various scenes from the Passion of Christ which would be pointed out as the prayer was recited. On either side are represented members of the Christian estate: on the left is a group of ecclesiastics behind a figure of the Pope, and on the right a group of secular figures is seen behind a figure of the Holy Roman Emperor. The individual designs of the composition derive from those of other artists; the scenes of the Passion are loosely based on Dürer's 'Small Passion'. which was produced between 1509 and 1511 (see 1896,0125.1(28)) and the central woodcut of the Nativity, which was also issued as a separate print, is based on the left half or a woodcut ascribed to Hans von Kulmbach, with whom Traut worked in Dürer's studio (B. VII, 174, app. 3). The figure of Friedrich the Wise of Saxony, seen to the right of the Emperor, is based on the engraved portrait by Cranach of 1510 (Hollstein, 5; see under 1850,0810.525).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1995 Jun-Oct, BM, 'German Renaissance Prints, 1490-1550', no.70
1999 May-Jun, London, Strang Print Room, Prints, Propaganda, Popular Culture
- Acquisition date
- 1919
- Acquisition notes
- 1919,0616.1 to 133 were all purchased from Captain Spencer-Churchill at Northwick Park through his solicitors, Messrs Johnson, Raymond-Barker Co, for a total of £655. The collection had been formed by John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick in the 1820s, and had descended to Captain Spencer-Churchill. The earlier provenance of many of the prints is recorded in individual catalogue records.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1919,0616.37
