The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Saint Dorothy

c. 1519–20

Hans Springinklee

(German, 1540)
Germany
Woodcut printed in black oil-based ink and hand colored with ochre wash, heightened with white, silver, and touches of gold
Sheet: 24.5 x 15.5 cm (9 5/8 x 6 1/8 in.)
Anne Elizabeth Wilson Memorial Fund 2022.99
Catalogue raisonné: Hollstein 13
Location: 101B Prints & Drawings

Did You Know?

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

Description

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.
  • February 24, 2021
    (Van Ham Kunstauktionen, Cologne, Germany)
    ?-2022
    (C.G. Boerner, LLC, New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    September 12, 2022-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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. vol. 1, p. 417
    Geisberg, Max, and Walter L. Strauss. The German Single-Leaf Woodcut, 1500-1550. New York: Hacker Art Books, 1974. illustration variant: G.1341, p. 1291
    Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg. Meister um Albrecht Dürer: Ausstellung im Germanischen National-Museum vom 4. Juli bis 17. September. Nürnberg: [Germanisches National-Museum], 1961. no. 348
    Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg. Meister um Albrecht Dürer: Ausstellung im Germanischen National-Museum vom 4. Juli bis 17. September. Nürnberg: [Germanisches National-Museum], 1961. No. 348
    Bartsch, Adam von. Le peintre graveur. Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1970. vol 3, p. 205, no. 263
  • In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 7, 2025-January 11, 2026).
  • {{cite web|title=Saint Dorothy|url=false|author=Hans Springinklee|year=c. 1519–20|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.99