As a medium, engraving allows for much more detail than woodcut. Dürer used this possibility of fineness in the Engraved Passion to fashion visually complex images. By making images of such intricacy, Dürer encourages the viewer to pull the diminutive print close to the face, lest some important detail in the well-wrought scene be missed. Here, Dürer sets up a slow and deliberate viewing experience, one that, in contrast to the Small Passion, prioritizes the narrative within each scene over the relationship between the scenes. The psychological tenor of the Engraved Passion is a result of the artist’s finesse with the medium. How its images unfold for the viewer is intimately bound with the materials with which they were made. The engravedness somehow means meditation.

See the Engraved Passion

These impressions were purchased through the Gray Collection of Engravings Fund; their accession numbers run consecutively from G7811 through G7825. Measurements are in centimeters.