Engraving, 1470-82. 163x116 mm; 6 1/2x4 3/4 inches, thread margins. Ex-collection unknown collector, blue ink stamp with the initials LM verso (not in Lugt). From the Passion. A very good impression of this extremely scarce, early engraving.
Schongauer's exquisitely engraved images were circulated widely throughout Europe. The sheer number of engraved copies of Schongauer's prints, made by other artists during his lifetime, attests to his popularity and the significant demand for his work in the late 15th/early 16th century (Schongauer made approximately 115 engravings of different subjects, of which there are an equivalent number of different copies made by other artists during the late 15th century alone. One of Schongauer's best-known engravings, The Death of the Virgin, early 1470s, was copied in at least 7 different prints by the early 16th century). Most importantly, he was one of the first printmakers to develop an individual style and whose engravings helped to stimulate an interest in collecting prints hitherto unknown in northern Europe.
Schongauer's work paved the way for the success of subsequent printmakers and was profoundly influential to the generation of engravers who proceeded him, most notably Albrecht Dürer (see lots 233-289). In 1492, the 21-year-old, prodigious Dürer had intended to train with Schongauer but arrived to the master engraver's workshop just months after his death. Bartsch 20; Lehrs 10.
