Descent from the Cross (c. 1504): Art, History and Details

Descent from the Cross (c. 1504) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This copy of a scene from Albrecht Dürer’s Passion series was made in reverse of the composition by attaching the original print to a plate and then engraving over the lines. The copy shows a lack of control in line widths, depths, and patterns—possibly due to inferior tools or inks—resulting in an image that printed weakly and that lacks the spatial depth and rich tonality of Dürer’s model. However, some consumers of the period were more interested in the biblical subject matter than in the copy’s quality or its connection to Dürer.

Object facts

• Title: Descent from the Cross
• Date: c. 1504
• Creator attribution: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)
• Culture: Germany, early 16th Century
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Sheet: 11.5 x 7.1 cm (4 1/2 x 2 13/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1922.79

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.