5. Albrecht Dürer
(1471-1528)
Saint Philip

(click on image to print)
Dürer: Saint Philip

Saint Philip

Engraving, 1526, 121 x 75 mm., Bartsch 46, Meder 48 a-b (of d). Fine, sharp impression on laid paper without visible watermark, with a thread margin and inky plate edge at the bottom and part of the left, elsewhere trimmed along the platemark, the image complete; a few tiny surface abrasions at the lower right corner. Dürer’s late Apostle engravings share both a monumental austerity of composition and a sophisticated interest in exploring engraving’s potential for myriad tones of grey and subtle variations of light rather than the sharp contrasts of black and white. There is a classicism in both of these qualities that expresses the supreme mastery of history’s greatest engraver at the peak of his powers.