Albrecht Dürer Siege woodcut

ALBRECHT DÜRER                     Nuremberg 1471 – 1528 Nuremberg

The Siege of a Fortress.

Woodcut printed from two blocks; 1527. Meder 272 c (of G).  Watermark: Narrow High Crown,  Meder watermark 28,  datable 1542-1551 on both sheets, which he cites for impressions of this print. Meder’s description of the sequence of the printing of this woodcut is complicated, but the breaks in the two blocks indicate that our impression is datable to his ‘c’ impressions, c. 1540.

The block was cut in 1527, and a very few impressions were printed then in Dürer’s Treatise on Fortifications, published that same year, in trial impressions inserted at the back of the book.

An extremely fine impression in excellent condition, with large margins (25 mm on left, 15 on the right, and 50-60 top and bottom). In impression quality entirely comparable to the two fine, early impressions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Our impression is with the same watermark as one of those impressions, which Meder dates to 1542-1551. Our examination of the two Metropolitan Museum impressions shows that the other Metropolitan impression with a watermark of Meder 26, thus c. 1530, is printed with slightly less contrast that the Metropolitan impression with the Meder 28 watermark.

It is interesting to note that our impression conforms more closely to the character of the slightly earlier impression.  Our impression cannot be later than the mid 16^th century and early impressions such as this are not seen in trade.  Those that do appear in trade are much later,  toward the beginning of the 17^th century, with successively ever greater damages to the block.

Dürer had seen a similar siege in 1519 when he accompanied Willibald Pirckheimer and Martin Tucher on an official mission to Zurich. On the way, he drew the Siege of Hohenasperg (drawing now in Berlin). This is the artist’s only independent landscape in print.

Sheet: 338 x 770 mm     13 3/8 x 30 5/16 inches

Note: Schoch, Mende, Scherbaum, Dürer Das Druckgrafische Werk, Band II. [n.d.].cat. no 260, p.489.

Note: See Giulia Bartrum,  Albrecht Dürer and his legacy,  British Museum, Exhibition Catalogue, 2002, cat. no. 170, p.221.

Note: Even in the impressions c. 1560, very noticeable breaks appear in both blocks, and in subsequent printings the blocks are much disfigured.