The Resurrection

This print belongs to a group of woodcuts showing the events of Christ’s Passion. The series was published with Latin verses on the back of each sheet, but this particular impression was printed as a “proof” before the text was added. Here, Albrecht Dürer showed Christ emerging from his tomb while the soldiers assigned to guard him sleep. Christ’s muscular, heroic body demonstrates Dürer’s awareness of visual models from the classical past and from Italy, a knowledge he helped to spread in the north through prints such as this. Here, the ideal body of Christ represents his resurrected state.