The Vintage of the Grapes of the Vine, from the Blockbook Apocalypse (1465–70): Artwork and History

The Vintage of the Grapes of the Vine, from the Blockbook Apocalypse (1465–70) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Unknown Artist German, 15th century.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Blockbooks were hand-printed from wooden blocks with hand-carved text. This woodcut is the lower half of a page representing visions from the Book of Revelations. The upper half showed a grain harvest; this half demonstrates the production of wine. Both were highly symbolic substances for the sacrament of the Eucharist. This stencil-colored sheet is almost identical to other surviving impressions. Although part of a book, only one side was printed, due to high embossing created by the process. In this impression, an owner has used the verso as scrap paper, taking copious notes on Latin vocabulary starting with the letter c.

Object facts

• Title: The Vintage of the Grapes of the Vine, from the Blockbook Apocalypse
• Date: 1465–70
• Artist attribution: Unknown Artist German, 15th century
• Place of origin: Germany
• Medium: Hand-colored woodcut on cream laid paper
• Dimensions: Image: 12.9 × 19.8 cm (5 1/8 × 7 13/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.806

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.