Citation link:
https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/duerer_society1902/0015
sfmafones
WOODCUTS.
XVIII-XXII.
Five Woodcuts from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493, illustrated by
Michel Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff.
■wjmj ICHEL WOLGEMUT (1434-1519), the
I k ww j I chief painter of Nuremberg in the generation
IBkwal before Diirer, and Diirer’s master from i486
I to 1489, married in 1473 Barbara, the
=SSssl widow of Hans Pleydenwurff, painter, and
thereupon entered into partnership with his stepson
Wilhelm. The younger Pleydenwurff died in 1494, and
his mother soon afterwards. Wolgemut married again, and
his second wife, Christina, by whom he had several children,
survived till 1550. Wolgemut himself, as we learn from
the inscription on the portrait by Diirer (Pl. I.), died on
November 30th, 1519.
A number of single woodcuts in books published
from 1484 to 1495 may be ascribed to Wolgemut with
great probability, but his chief achievements in book
illustration are the two long series of woodcuts in the
Schatzbehalter, 1491, and the Nuremberg Chronicle,
1493, both printed by Anton Koberger, Diirer’s godfather.
Hartmann Schedel’s Chronicle was published in two
editions, in Latin and German. The first, “ Liber
cronicarum cu figuris et ymagibus ab inicio mudi,” is dated
July 12th; the German edition, translated by Georg Alt, is
dated Dec. 23rd, 1493. Each is a huge folio volume,
containing over 1800 woodcuts printed from 645 different
blocks.1 Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermaister
bore the expenses of printing and contracted with
Wolgemut and Pleydenwurff, described as “viri mathe-
matici pingendique arte peritissimi,” for the illustrations.
Wolgemut’s drawing for the frontispiece, “The Almighty in
the Act of Blessing,” dated 1490, is in the British Museum.
The Sacrifice of Cain: The Death of Abel.
1 For an analysis of these, see Mr. S. C. Cockerell’s account of the book in “Some German Woodcuts of the Fifteenth
Century,” Kelmscott Press, 1897. Most writers have estimated the number of cuts roughly at 2000 or more.
12
WOODCUTS.
XVIII-XXII.
Five Woodcuts from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493, illustrated by
Michel Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff.
■wjmj ICHEL WOLGEMUT (1434-1519), the
I k ww j I chief painter of Nuremberg in the generation
IBkwal before Diirer, and Diirer’s master from i486
I to 1489, married in 1473 Barbara, the
=SSssl widow of Hans Pleydenwurff, painter, and
thereupon entered into partnership with his stepson
Wilhelm. The younger Pleydenwurff died in 1494, and
his mother soon afterwards. Wolgemut married again, and
his second wife, Christina, by whom he had several children,
survived till 1550. Wolgemut himself, as we learn from
the inscription on the portrait by Diirer (Pl. I.), died on
November 30th, 1519.
A number of single woodcuts in books published
from 1484 to 1495 may be ascribed to Wolgemut with
great probability, but his chief achievements in book
illustration are the two long series of woodcuts in the
Schatzbehalter, 1491, and the Nuremberg Chronicle,
1493, both printed by Anton Koberger, Diirer’s godfather.
Hartmann Schedel’s Chronicle was published in two
editions, in Latin and German. The first, “ Liber
cronicarum cu figuris et ymagibus ab inicio mudi,” is dated
July 12th; the German edition, translated by Georg Alt, is
dated Dec. 23rd, 1493. Each is a huge folio volume,
containing over 1800 woodcuts printed from 645 different
blocks.1 Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermaister
bore the expenses of printing and contracted with
Wolgemut and Pleydenwurff, described as “viri mathe-
matici pingendique arte peritissimi,” for the illustrations.
Wolgemut’s drawing for the frontispiece, “The Almighty in
the Act of Blessing,” dated 1490, is in the British Museum.
The Sacrifice of Cain: The Death of Abel.
1 For an analysis of these, see Mr. S. C. Cockerell’s account of the book in “Some German Woodcuts of the Fifteenth
Century,” Kelmscott Press, 1897. Most writers have estimated the number of cuts roughly at 2000 or more.
12