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Between and Mortarboard

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54 Items in this Learning Collection
Battle of the Sea Gods
This black and white print depicts an animated and detailed scene of nude figures and mythical beasts on the surface of the sea.Two men, with seaweed hair and riding half horse/half fish creatures, strike out at each other. A man and a woman ride a beast with a scaly body and the head of a fierce dog. In the background, a man holding a trident stands with his back to the viewer. Action and motion are expressed with billowing drapery, flowing hair and moving waves. The wide mouthed expressions of the figures and animals suggest yelling and noise in this chaotic scene. Among the many details depicted by the artist is a plaque held by the woman that has his initials.
Collection Object
Christ on the Cross, Pierced with a Spear

Collection Object
Pietà (The Lamentation of the Virgin)

Collection Object
Christ in Limbo (The Harrowing of Hell) from "The Small Woodcut Passion"
A group of figures at the left stand in a vaulted space under a cross. They look towards the lower right of the composition where a man holding a standard with a cross on top is bending forward and offering his hand to an old bearded man in an arched doorway. Above the doorway are several fantastical figures with beaked or animal heads and arms with claws. Signed in the block "AD", lower right, recto.
Collection Object
The Entombment from "The Small Woodcut Passion"
A group of four men gently lower a figure into a tomb that is placed parallel to the viewer. To the left is a group of mourners with hands clasped.  One female figure kneels at the ledge of the tomb and holds a covered jar.  Behind the figures is a rocky landscape with a fence and guard at the gate in the distance at the left.  An entrance to a cave is indicated on the right, directly behind the tomb, with the use of dense, dark hatching.  At the lower right corner is a circlet of thorny branches.
Collection Object
Christ before Caiphas from "The Small Woodcut Passion"
A man seated on a throne under a canopy on the right looks toward a group of standing figures on the left. A group of soldiers in helmets and armor and spears surround a tall bearded man who stands looking at the seated official. In the distance is a view of a town in a landscape and at the feet of the seated man is a dog.  The print is signed in the block "AD" on the lower left of the recto.
Collection Object
Saint Jerome in His Chamber
Print trimmed to image frame line. Paper repaired along the right edge of the print. Paper size: h 24 7/10cm x tw 18 3/5cm & bw 18 4/5cm.
Collection Object
Nativity
Paper trimmed to frame. Tacked down to mat on all four sides. Paper size: h 13 x tw 10 1/10cm & bw 10cm.
Collection Object
The Peasant and His Wife at Market
A couple stand in a very dense and congested space, a broken wall behind them. The woman on the left holds a rooster by the feet and is looking at her husband, on the right, who has his hand extended and his holding a money bagin is left hand. At their feet is a stoppered jar and a basket full of eggs.
Collection Object
St. Paul

Collection Object
Bearing the Cross, Plate 10 from the engraved Passion

Collection Object
Betrayal of Christ, Plate 3 from the engraved Passion

Collection Object
Nativity

Collection Object
Christ Disputing

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Satyr's Family

Collection Object
Christ Before Pilate, from "Small Engraved Passion"

Collection Object
Descent of the Holy Ghost
Woodcut unevenly trimmed with a clean image; some broken lines in light rays (left and right top) and dark folds of clothing.
Collection Object
The Last Judgment
Woodcut print with some distortion/fading in lines in upper right corner (hilt of sword, trumpet, light rays); broken lines near right arm of Christ; text visable through paper.
Collection Object
The Cook and his Wife
Two figures dominate the image with little reference to setting other than a low horizon line and some pebbles in the lower left. A man stands tothe lelft wearing simple tradesman's clothes; in his right hand he holds a ladle and another cooking implement. A knife in its sheath hangs at his waist. On his left shoulder stands a bird wtih wings open that is facing the man. To the right is a woman with a headdress and veil and cloak wrapped over one shoulder and in front of her.
Collection Object
The Virgin as Queen of the Angels

Collection Object
Oceanus (from a Series of 6 Mythological Figures)
A powerfully muscled nude man sits astride a fearsome sea creature. He grasps an oar in his left hand and the beast's reins in his right, while a cloth billows out behind him. A variety of humanoid creatures frolic in the seascape in the background.
Collection Object
Coat of Arms with the Cock
A composition with a heraldic motif: a rooster standing on top of a helmet with visor and throat guard, below which is a sheld or other carving with a rampant lion. Surrounding on either side is vigorous foliage (acanthus leaves).
Collection Object
Christ Before Caiaphas; from the 'Engraved Passion'

Collection Object
The Circumcision (Life of the Virgin Series)
A crowd gathers in the side chapel of a church around a group of seated figures and an infant. A man with a long flowing beard sits and holds the infant in his hands above a plate, while another man leans forward in his chair and peers through his spectacles at the child as he performs a circumcision. A plaque with the artist's initials, "HG," lies on the floor in the foreground.
Collection Object
The Flagellation (Large Passion Series)
At the center of this densely detailed print stands a male figure, nude except for a loincloth, with his hands tied behind him to a column. He is encircled by a crowd of figures, including three men who beat him with whips, switches, and fists. A fourth figure leers at him grotesquely, while another sits on the ground with his feet against the column and pulls the ropes holding their victim. Another figure, wearing elaborate armor, kneels in the foreground as he prepares his switches. Onlookers, some wearing elaborate turbans and robes inspired by Turkish clothing, stand behind the torturers. A crown of thorns sits in the lower right corner and a small dog appears in the center foreground next to the artist's initials.
Collection Object
St. Jerome in His Study
This engraving depicts a comfortable domestic interior. An old bearded man sits poring over a book at table in the back of the room. A lion and dog rest on the floor in the foreground. Various other objects appear around the room, including a skull, books, slippers, a crucifix, and a pair of scissors.
Collection Object
The Annunciation, from the Life of the Virgin

Collection Object
Madonna by the Wall
A young woman, dressed in long robes with her veil drawn over her head, sits next to a wall holding an infant in her lap. She is turned slightly to her right and gazes sweetly upon the child who twists to face the viewer and holds an apple in his left hand. A stream meanders through the landscape of trees and city walls behind them.
Collection Object
Hercules
A nude man seen from behind raises a staff to ward off the blow of a standing female figure, also with a staff. The woman's swing is directed to two seated figures at the lower left: a nude woman and a satyr. In the distance is an elaborate gated city and landscape.
Collection Object
The Sea Monster
Two figures are seen riding through the water in the foreground; the woman is nude save for an elaborate headdress, the man holds a tortoise shell as a shield and has an antler-like object on his head and has a serpent-like body which supports the woman. Behind is a minutely described landsape with walled town, castle, and along the opposite bank o the water, nude females swimming and a man running in alarm to the water's edge.
Collection Object
The Small Passion. Ecce Homo-Christ Shown to the People

Collection Object
Entry into Jerusalem, from the Small Passion

Collection Object
Melencolia I

Collection Object
The Four Avenging Angels from the 'Apocalypse'
This woodcut print is vertically oriented. The upper half of the piece is celestial with an angel standing on a cloud blowing a trumpet. Men on fire-breathing beasts exit from the clouds. At the very top center, a white-bearded figure, shown from the torso to the head, holds four trumpets. Rays emanate from his head to form a halo, and he is framed in a half circle. Directly below him is an altar with vines on the sides and four child-faces spitting water out. The upper right corner features an angel blowing a trumpet and the upper left features a smiling angel with hands clasped in prayer. The lower half of the print is terrestrial and depicts a chaotic battle scene. Four angels with wings and swords attack a crowd of men, including a pope, a bishop and a king, as well as commoners. These figures are all crowded into the foreground with contorted postures. There is a city on a hill visible in the distance. The center bottom has Dürer’s signature of letter "D" contained within a letter &q
Collection Object
Ecce Homo (Large Passion Series)
A crowd of men, rendered as a dense mass of bodies and faces that bristles with pikes and spears, gather before a porch attached to an ornately decorated stone building. A bearded man, wearing rich dress and a turban leans over the balustrade of the porch toward the crowd with his arms outstretched and his hands open as he turns his head to look at the man standing beside him. This sorrowful figure wears only a crown of thorns and a long robe that is partly opened by the man standing behind him to reveal his lean body flecked with drops of sweat or blood.
Collection Object
Fragment of a gaming piece with male slaying beast, possibly Hercules and the Erymanthian boar, zigzag pattern with incised circles in border
Fragment of circular gaming piece carved in elephant ivory in high relief. Standing male figure wearing knee-length robe holds sword in right hand and stabs inverted beast in the chest. Forelegs of beast end in hooves; head of beast characterized by large eye and pronounced nostril. Left arm of figure and rear half of the beast missing. Border contains zigzag pattern with bead motif.
Collection Object
The Mourning Virgin

Collection Object
Standing Christ
This figure of Christ wears a volumnious mantle and strides forcefully forward with his left leg. His hands, now broken off, once held either a cross-staff or a globe while he made of gesture of blessing with the other. His robe appears to have originally been gilded and then painted over with red to impart his garment with a lustrous quality.
Collection Object
The Triumph of the Four Elements
Two horses pull a wagon carrying four female passengers in this small bronze plaque. The driver, a seated nude male with a cap takes the reins in his left hand and raises a whip in his right. Behind him sit two pairs of taller female figures, each wearing a long flowing mantle.
Collection Object
Coconut Cup
This cup is fashioned from a coconut shell set in a shallow bowl supported on a long, narrow stem and held in place by three straps and a tall neck band. The shallow domed lid has a plain, overhanging rim and terminates in a finial with a statuette of a nude sea nymph and serpent. The metalwork is densely decorated with various masks, animals, fantastic creatures, and vegetal ornament.
Collection Object
Illustration from an Augsburg Bible (Incunabulum)

Collection Object
The Five Kings Hanged (Joshua 10:26)

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Baptism of a Warrior by a Bishop Saint (recto); Young Woman's Head (verso)

Collection Object
Design For a Fireplace

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Illuminated Manuscript

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Wolgund Sends a Message to Hugdieterich

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Arms of Maximillian. Illustration from 'Quadriuium ecclesiae,' by Ioh. Hug, Lat

Collection Object
Tankard with Lid and scenes of Judith, Lucretia, and Venus
The body of the tankard is decorated with two narrow bands of gilded abstract vegetal ornament around the neck and base, separated by a wider band that features three repoussé medallions alternating with three bosses. Each medallion depicts a standing nude female: one of the nudes appears in an interior holding a dagger to her chest; another holds a sword and a man's head and stands beside a female companion; the third holds an elongated arrow with a blindfolded cupid at her feet. The cast handle consists of a clawed bird's foot grasping a ball at the base, followed by a satyr mask, a bound female nude, and, surmounting the handle, the bust of a warrior. The lid, a later addition, bears a wreath with a series of initials and the date 1639.
Collection Object
Perseus and Andromeda

Collection Object
Coffeepot

Collection Object
St. Jerome
This small porcelain sculpture represents a gaunt, sinewy bearded figure, who is naked except for a loincloth. With his right knee wedged in a stump, his torso contracts with an inner tension as he pounds his chest with stones in an act of penitence. At his feet sits a lion.
Collection Object
Man of Sorrows

Collection Object
The Last Judgement, from the Nuremberg Chronicle

Collection Object
Leaf from a Choir Book with Nativity

Collection Object

Copyright
All Rights Reserved ()

Christ in Limbo (The Harrowing of Hell) from "The Small Woodcut Passion"

Accession Number
2011/2.55

Title
Christ in Limbo (The Harrowing of Hell) from "The Small Woodcut Passion"

Artist(s)
Albrecht Dürer

Object Creation Date
circa 1509-1511

Medium & Support
woodcut print on laid paper

Dimensions
5 in x 3 3/4 in (12.7 cm x 9.53 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Prof. Eugene and Mrs. Marie Glysson

Label copy
Albrecht Dürer
Germany, 1471–1528
Christ in Limbo [The Harrowing of Hell], from the Small Woodcut Passion
circa 1508–10
Woodcut
Gift of Professor Eugene and
Mrs. Marie Glysson, 2011/2.55
(Gallery Rotations Fall 2012)

Subject matter
After his death and before the Resurrection, Christ descended into Hell to bring out righteous people who had lived before him, including Adam and Eve, Moses, and other Old Testament prophets. Here Christ holds a standard in his left hand that bears a dovetail flag with a cross, while he brings out of hell one of these patriarchs with his right hand. Other redeemed figures look on as the man at the lower right is released from Hell.  The image was meant to inspire religious devotion and evoke the concept of atonement.

Physical Description
A group of figures at the left stand in a vaulted space under a cross. They look towards the lower right of the composition where a man holding a standard with a cross on top is bending forward and offering his hand to an old bearded man in an arched doorway. Above the doorway are several fantastical figures with beaked or animal heads and arms with claws. Signed in the block "AD", lower right, recto.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Primary Object Type
relief print

Collection Area
Western

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Adam
Bible stories
Christ
Christianity
Eve
New Testament
Passion (of Christ)
Passion cycles
Satan
crosses (motifs)
demons
devotional images (religious works)
hell (doctrinal concept)
people in religion
underworld (doctrinal concept)
woodcuts (prints)

12 Related Resources
Death and Dying
(Part of 8 Learning Collections)
Death in the European Middle Ages
(Part of 4 Learning Collections)
Human-Animal Metamorphosis
(Part of 6 Learning Collections)
Human Sacrifice
(Part of 4 Learning Collections)
Medieval European Monsters and Devils
(Part of 5 Learning Collections)
Monsters
(Part of 4 Learning Collections)
Northern Renaissance and Reformation-Era Art
(Part of 2 Learning Collections)
The Divine Comedy
(Part of 4 Learning Collections)
Heavens, Hells, and Afterlives
(Part of 3 Learning Collections)

& Author Notes

All Rights Reserved