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Johannes Gerson as a Pilgrim, frontispiece from Opera Johannes Gerson

Date:

1488

Artist:

Unknown artist (German)
printed by Johann Prüss the Elder (German, 1447-1510)

About this artwork

Woodblocks were exceptionally durable printing matrices; several thousand impressions could be pulled from them. Like the Erhard Reeuwich panorama of Jerusalem on view nearby (1947.474), this book illustration was frequently reissued and copied. It depicts the late medieval French theologian Jean de (Johannes) Gerson (1363–1429) on an imagined pilgrimage with a dog and a walking staff. Gerson did write about the role of the pilgrim in his Works, a volume of which included this author portrait. Yet this luxuriously colored impression included more than golden highlights, adding an entirely new landscape background; in most impressions, everything beyond the castle on the hill is blank.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Johann Prüss (Printer)

Title

Johannes Gerson as a Pilgrim, frontispiece from Opera Johannes Gerson

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.

1488

Medium

Hand-colored woodcut in black on cream laid paper

Inscriptions

Inscribed verso center, in black pen and ink: “Terita pars oper (um) Johannis de Gerson doctoris Christianissimi”

Dimensions

Image/block: 22.2 × 14.8 cm (8 3/4 × 5 7/8 in.); Sheet: 30.6 × 21.4 cm (12 1/16 × 8 7/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Reference Number

1946.322

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/55441/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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