Details
ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
The Martyrdom of the Ten-thousand
woodcut, circa 1496, on laid paper, watermark Small Shield with Tri-mount and Cross, a good, even Meder e-f impression, printed circa 1580, trimmed on or inside the borderline, the left sheet edge with substantial losses, made up with pen and brown ink, various other made up losses and repairs, mostly at the sheet edges, the sheet backed and toned
Sheet 388 x 280 mm.

Provenance:
With Giuseppe Stork (1766-1836), Milan (Lugt 2319), with his inscription J. Storck a Milan 1797/ C.D.M. in brown ink verso
Also inscribed 1535/766/ from Colnaghi's sale/ B in brown ink verso
Another, unidentified stamped mark, initials vdf (?) verso (not in Lugt)

References:
Bartsch, Hollstein 117
Meder 218
Schoch, Mende, Scherbaum 104

Please note this lot is the property of a private collector.
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Lot Essay



The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand, related in various sources and different versions, occurred either under the reign of Hadrian or Diocletian. When a Roman army miraculously converted to Christendom the emperor, determined to suppress the Christian faith, gave orders for it to be massacred in its entirety. In Dürer's woodcut we see the soldiers stripped naked and driven up a hill before being thrown off. In the foreground the bishop Hermolaus, who had baptised the converts, suffers his martyrdom by having his eye put out with a large carpenter's drill. A preparatory drawing for the figure of his torturer has survived and is now kept at the Musée Bonnat, Bayonne (W. 167).

Dürer's first great patron, the Prince-Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, was so impressed with the woodcut that several years later he commissioned him to paint a version of the same subject, which is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

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