Unknown artist. The Way of Salvation. 1485–1495. Germany. Woodcut in black hand colored with brush and watercolor on cream laid paper, laid down on cream laid paper A pair of prints from opposite sides of the Alps demonstrates the didactic capabilities of devotional printmaking. Both depict a sacred mountain that the soul must climb toward heaven. In Baccio Baldini’s extremely early engraved book illustration of an Italianate ladder of virtues, a monk successfully ascends, while a fashionable young man is dragged away by a demon representing worldly pleasures. Its thistle-laden German counterp
Unknown artist. The Way of Salvation. 1485–1495. Germany. Woodcut in black hand colored with brush and watercolor on cream laid paper, laid down on cream laid paper A pair of prints from opposite sides of the Alps demonstrates the didactic capabilities of devotional printmaking. Both depict a sacred mountain that the soul must climb toward heaven. In Baccio Baldini’s extremely early engraved book illustration of an Italianate ladder of virtues, a monk successfully ascends, while a fashionable young man is dragged away by a demon representing worldly pleasures. Its thistle-laden German counterpart consists of banderole rungs filled with xylographic text and a crowned Christ waiting in glory. A nun kneeling at the bottom may have commissioned the print. She envisions a torturous journey up the steep incline, her twelve-step program advocating different Christian virtues faith, generosity, modesty, constancy, justice, strength, will, patience, obedience, humility and at long last, divinity.
Size: 2096px × 3000px
Photo credit: © WBC ART / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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