The Passion is the story of Christ’s suffering between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. The idea of Christ’s sacrifice through the Passion, of his dying in order to redeem humankind from Adam and Eve’s original sin, is one of the central tenets of Christian theology. In the early sixteenth century, most European art was inextricably bound to religion, and the Passion was a primary subject. While many Northern Renaissance artists addressed this subject at some point in their careers, Dürer’s insistent revisitation and reimagining of the events reveal the special attention and importance he accorded the Passion. That Dürer made Passion images is not surprising; that he made six versions is.

This exhibition brings together for the first time images from each of these six versions. In these and related works, Dürer explores three primary concerns: how to imagine Christ as a man in a body, how to inscribe himself (Dürer) into the image, and how to account for his viewer in the scene. Because it spans his entire creative career, Dürer’s Passion work not only charts his changing attitudes toward these issues, it also provides a window onto his artistic development as a whole.