St John devouring the book

Albrecht Dürer
Germany
1471 – 1528

St John devouring the book
plate 9 from 'The Apocalypse'
c 1498; published 1498
woodcut on paper
Place made
Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany
Medium
woodcut on paper
Dimensions
39.2 x 27.3 cm (sheet)
Credit line
Bequest of David Murray 1908
Accession number
084G1132
Signature and date
Signed in block bot.c. "AD" in monogram. Not dated.
Provenance
David Murray (b.1829 - d.1907), Adelaide
Catalogue raisonne
B.70 ; M.172 ; Holl/G 172 (2b) ; S.W.53 ; TIB v.10, p.339, .270 (Latin edition, 1498)
Media category
Print
Collection area
European prints

  • Ex Libris: the printed image and the art of the book, 2010


    In 1498, Albrecht Dürer published his illustrations for The Revelation of Saint John.

     

    The final book of the Bible and one that foretold the end of the world, Durer’s visions of hellish creatures and catastrophe must have terrified his contemporaries—particularly those who held the common belief that the apocalypse was due occur in the year 1500.

     

    And yet, it was the book of Revelation, dense with description of demons, beasts and angels, which allowed Durer’s artistic imagination free flight. Never before had the woodblock print been used to such incredible effect; The Apocalypse transformed both the graphic possibilities of the woodcut and the artistic potential of book illustration.

     

    In The Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse, Dürer portrays the riders who, according to Saint John, will emerge at the earth’s end. Personified as a man, crazed and skeletal, Death rides upon a pale horse, flanked by his accomplices, Famine, War and Plague.

     

    Elspeth Pitt, Assistant Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs

  • Five Centuries of Genius: European Master Printmaking

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 5 May 2000 – 2 October 2000

  • Durer and German Renaissance Printmaking, 1996-1997

    Cairns Art Gallery, 28 March 1996 – 11 May 1997
    Art Gallery of South Australia, 6 December 1996 – 23 February 1997
    Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, 20 June 1997 – 3 August 1997
    Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, 13 August 1997 – 28 September 1997
    Newcastle Art Gallery, 18 October 1997 – 30 November 1997
    Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, 17 March 1999 – 16 May 1999

  • Ex Libris: The printed image and the art of the book

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 13 April 2010 – 30 May 2010
  • [Book] Dürer and German Renaissance Printmaking.
  • [Book] Five Centuries of Genius: European Master Printmaking.