Engraved copies of The Little Passion

Engraved copies of The Little Passion by Albrecht Dürer is a significant series of prints held within the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Executed in the challenging medium of engraving, these highly detailed images showcase the German Renaissance master’s innovation in graphic arts. The wide date range provided (1485-1699) indicates that this specific group includes later impressions or reproductive works based on Dürer’s celebrated original engravings and woodcuts of the same name.

Dürer first popularized the narrative of the Passion, chronicling the final suffering and death of Jesus, making it accessible to a broader audience through easily reproducible prints. Unlike his larger woodcut cycles, this engraved Passion distinguished itself by its extraordinary technical finesse. Dürer’s meticulous control of the burin allowed him to achieve unprecedented tonal richness and textural variety in the prints, effectively translating complex, emotionally charged compositions onto copper plates.

The series captures intense theological drama across multiple scenes, focusing keenly on the central figure of Jesus as he interacts with various groups of Men, ranging from disciples and accusers to Roman soldiers. The prints served both as devotional tools and as models for subsequent artists across Europe.

As a foundational work of Northern European printmaking, The Little Passion was highly influential, widely circulated, and frequently copied throughout subsequent centuries. The availability of these prints in major institutional collections like the Met ensures that Dürer’s immense contribution to the history of graphic arts remains preserved and accessible. These historic prints are central to understanding the dissemination of religious imagery during the Renaissance, and reproductions of these master prints are frequently made available through public domain initiatives today.