Artwork Page for The Passion: Christ in Limbo

Details / Information for The Passion: Christ in Limbo

The Passion: Christ in Limbo

c. 1480

Martin Schongauer

(German, c. 1450–1491)
Culture
Germany
Medium
engraving
Support
Laid paper
Measurements
Sheet: 16.5 x 11.7 cm (6 1/2 x 4 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 2015.20
Catalogue raisonné
L 29; TIB 8 comm., pt. 1, 0801.029
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

This image of Christ trampling a monstrous demon and piercing it with his cross recalls the one of Archangel Michael in another print by Martin Schongauer (1952.99).

Description

Martin Schongauer's series The Passion of Christ was his largest set of engravings, made around 1480, and extensively copied across Europe. It consists of 12 prints detailing the suffering of Christ in the last days of his life. Schongauer's version focuses on crowded scenes, grotesque physiognomies of Christ's tormentors, and great pathos in the compositions. Here, Schongauer represented the episode in which Christ, between his death and resurrection, descended into Limbo to bring salvation to the righteous ones who had died before him. Christ majestically strides over a vanquished demon crushed under his foot, and holds Adam's hand with his left hand.
A vertically oriented engraving in dense black-inked fine lines depicts Christ, a man with light skin tone and a radiating halo. Holding a cross-topped staff, he steps on a prone creature while grasping a kneeling man's hand. Other light-skinned figures, including a woman holding an apple, wait within a dark archway. Above, a winged demon brandishes a tool. Hatching highlights muscular forms against the deeply shaded background.

The Passion: Christ in Limbo

c. 1480

Martin Schongauer

(German, c. 1450–1491)
Germany

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