Etching, 1516. 186x135 mm; 6 1/2x5 1/2 inches, thread margins. A superb, dark, richly-inked Meder I c impression, before the rust marks, with the vertical scratches through the angel's wing at left and along the lower right border near the monogram, some of the latter printing with burr-like inking, an early impression with these characteristics.
Bantrum notes, "Dürer produced only six etchings, all between circa 1515 and 1518. Early etchers often experienced difficulties in using the iron plates, which rusted quickly, and in controlling the acid for etching the design into the plate. These problems must have frustrated Dürer, who was so accomplished with the engraver's burin, and may have detrred him from experimenting further with the technique," (Bantrum, Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy, Princeton, 2002, p. 199). Bartsch 26; Meder 27.
