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The Flight into Egypt Albrecht Dürer
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Curator’s description:
Description
The Virgin rides a donkey, her back to the viewer and holding the infant Christ bundled up on her lap. An ox walks beside them, whilst Joseph, his staff over his shoulder, leads the donkey. In the left foreground is a date palm, and on the right, behind Joseph, a dragon-tree. Other trees fill the background and a swarm of cherubim and/or seraphim appears amongst clouds in the sky. The print is no. 14 of Dürer's series of woodcuts of "The Life of the Virgin", on which he was working from 1502 until 1511.
Ruskin first catalogued this print in 1872, when it appeared as no. 71 in the Rudimentary Series catalogues, one of the series of Dürers in the second section of the third cabinet in the Rudimentary Series (devoted to "Greek and Mediæval design"). In his 1878 rearrangement of the series, Ruskin moved the print to no. 68. Although recorded by Cook and Wedderburn and Hewison, the print could not be found in 2003, and the example reproduced here is a surrogate from the Ashmolean's Douce Collection; it is state 'a' before text (the state of Ruskin's print is impossible to identify).
Ruskin's views on the print were mixed: in his 1878 notes on the rearranged Rudimentary Series (no. 68), he praised the richness of the landscape and 'the splendid manual practice in the palm-branches' (cf. "Lectures on Landscape", § 53 = XXII.44); but he was highly critical of the 'worthless and stupid' donkey (no. 69).
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Details
- Artist/maker
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Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) (block cutter)
- Object type
- Material and technique
- woodcut on laid paper
- Dimensions
- surrogate: 300 x 210 mm (block)
- Associated people
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Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) (publisher)
- Inscription
- In the print, on a plaque bottom left, Dürer's characteristic monogram
- Provenance
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Presented by John Ruskin to the Ruskin Drawing School (University of Oxford), 1875; not recorded in the Drawing School after 1906.
- No. of items
- 1
- Accession no.
- RUD.071
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Subject terms allocated by curators:
Subjects
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References in which this object is cited include:
References
Schoch, Rainer, Mende, Matthias, and Scherbaum, Anna, Albrecht Dürer: das druckgraphische Werk, 3 (Munich/London/New York: Prestel, 2001-2004), no. 179
Meder, Josef, Dürer-Katalog, ein handbuch über Albrecht Dürers stiche, radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren zustände, ausgaben und wasserzeichen (Wien: Gilhofer & Ranschburg, 1932), no. 201
Bartsch, Adam von, Le Peintre Graveur, 21 vols (Vienna: J. von Degen, 1803-1821), cat. vol. VII, p. 132, no. 89
Ruskin, John, The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogue of the Rudimentary Series, in the Arrangement of 1873, ed. Robert Hewison (London: Lion and Unicorn Press, 1984), cat. Rudimentary no. 71, RUD.071
Hollstein, F. W. H., German Engravings Etchings and Woodcuts, ca. 1400 - 1700 (Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1954-), cat. vol. VII, p. 160, no. 201
Bartsch, Adam von, The Illustrated Bartsch, founding editor Walter L. Strauss, general editor John T. Spike (New York: Abaris Books, 1978-), no. 1001.289
Ruskin, John, Instructions in Practice of Elementary Drawing, Arranged with Reference to the First Series of Examples in the Drawings Schools of the University of Oxford (n.p., [1872]), cat. Rudimentary no. 71
Ruskin, John, Instructions in the Preliminary Exercises Arranged for the Lower Drawing-School (London: Smith, Elder, 1872), cat. Rudimentary no. 71
Ruskin, John, Instructions in the Preliminary Exercise Arranged For the Lower Drawing-School (London: Spottiswoode, 1873), cat. Rudimentary no. 71
Ruskin, John, ‘Rudimentary Series 1878’, 1878, Oxford, Oxford University Archives, cat. Rudimentary no. 68
Ruskin, John, ‘The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogues, Notes and Instructions’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 21, cat. Rudimentary no. 71
Ruskin, John, ‘Lectures on Landscape: Delivered at Oxford in Lent Term, 1871’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 22
Location
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- not found
Position in Ruskin’s Collection
Ruskin's Catalogues
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Ruskin's Rudimentary series, 3rd ed. (1872)
R|71} Flight into Egypt (woodcut). A. Dürer. -
Ruskin's Rudimentary series 4th ed. (1872)
R|71} Flight into Egypt (woodcut). A. Dürer. -
Ruskin's Rudimentary series, 5th ed. (1873)
R|71} Flight into Egypt (woodcut). A. Dürer. -
Ruskin's revision to the Rudimentary series (1878)
Now 71. 68.This is one of the most interesting of Dürer’s woodcuts; first, in the pretty richness of its elaborate landscape, and, secondly, in its want of appreciation of all the picturesque qualities in the donkey No more curious proof could be given of the R. impossibility of predicting what a great man will do, than that the same artist who engraved the cat and goat in the Adam & Eve should ever have engraved so entirely worthless and stupid a beast as this donkey. . I put this woodcut in our series, however, chiefly for the splendid manual practice in the palm-branches. Any student who can draw one of these with any appoaching the continuity of its sweep and delicacy of its intersections may consider himself a master of the pen.
