Saint Dorothy (c. 1519–20): Art, History and Details

Saint Dorothy (c. 1519–20) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hans Springinklee (German, c. 1495–1540).

The work and its context

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

This deceivingly simple print is a work of printmaking history. To create the golden color of the sheet, the paper was washed with an ochre-colored paint over which the black lines were printed. An artist then embellished the cloak and crown of the saint with silver and gold and other areas with white. On the left side of the print, the child, basket, and thistle held by Saint Dorothy are all contained within a vertical line. This indicates where a part of the block was removable, so that another block featuring different attributes (and thus re-assigning the identity of the female saint) could be inserted and printed. The print’s potential re-purposing shows the popularity of prints, many of which were inserted into prayer books in Renaissance Germany.

Object facts

• Title: Saint Dorothy
• Date: c. 1519–20
• Creator attribution: Hans Springinklee (German, c. 1495–1540)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: Woodcut printed in black oil-based ink and hand colored with ochre wash, heightened with white, silver, and touches of gold
• Dimensions: Sheet: 24.5 x 15.5 cm (9 5/8 x 6 1/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2022.99

A detail from the museum

The linear shading on the cloak of this saint was applied with ink containing silver, which has tarnished over time.

Collection credit

Anne Elizabeth Wilson Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• British Museum, and Campbell Dodgson. Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. London: The Trustees, 1903.
• Geisberg, Max, and Walter L. Strauss. The German Single-Leaf Woodcut, 1500-1550. New York: Hacker Art Books, 1974.
• Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg. Meister um Albrecht Dürer: Ausstellung im Germanischen National-Museum vom 4. Juli bis 17. September. Nürnberg: [Germanisches National-Museum], 1961.

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.