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The Man of Sorrows

A work made of engraving in black on ivory laid paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of engraving in black on ivory laid paper.

Date:

1520

Artist:

Sebald Beham
German, 1500-1550

About this artwork

Sebald Beham renders his engraving of The Man of Sorrows in intricate detail. Christ’s blood gushes into a chalice as it becomes Communion wine, and he grasps a Communion wafer imprinted with the Crucifixion in his right hand. This sizeable wafer is meant for the act of consecration, in which visibility was vital, rather than the individual consumption of smaller hosts that would have been also been produced by the nearby host iron. A priest holding the wafer aloft broke it at the culminating moment, copying Christ’s breaking of bread at the Last Supper.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Hans Sebald Beham

Title

The Man of Sorrows

Place

Germany (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1520

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

Image/sheet, trimmed to platemark: 13 × 8.6 cm (5 1/8 × 3 7/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

Reference Number

1919.2537

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/93549/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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