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Overview
The Large Passion is named after the format of the series (39 x 28 cm). The whole series of twelve woodcuts (eleven scenes and a title page) did not appear till 1511 when Albrecht Dürer published the cycle, together with a title page and a poem by the Benedictine theologian and monk Benedictus Chelidonius. The first seven woodcuts were executed between 1497 and 1500, then the series was completed by five woodcuts in 1510, following his visit to Italy (1505-07). The complete edition in book form was published in 1511. After Dürer's death, the series was republished in 1675 and 1690.
The pictures are distinguished by means of their strong emotions, naturalism and human treatment of the subject, thus distancing themselves from late Gothic depictions of the Passion. Dürer considered the Passion to be the subject most worthy of representation in pictorial art, and he portrayed it five different times - a sixth version remained unfinished owing to his death. The subject, untrammelled by the strange pictorial apparatus of the Apocalypse, allows a clearer expression of form and intention, appropriate for this central Christian story.
Christ in Limbo is the 11th of the 12 woodcuts in The Large Passion. According to Catholic beliefs of the time (this is on the verge of the Reformation), Christ descended into the underworld between his crucifixion and resurrection, where he rescued the souls of all the just people who had died, and who had been held in limbo since the beginning of the world. The episode is also known as The Harrowing of Hell, an alternative title for the woodcut.
Christ is shown in the act of rescuing John the Baptist from his dungeon and is immune from the menacing demon brandishing his spear - one of Dürer's most brilliantly fearsome creations. Christ's triumph over this and other demons, and his successful release of Hell's captives, is central to the story. Almost half a century later, Giorgio Vasari, the important artist and writer on artists' lives, was sufficiently impressed by the pose of the Christ figure to recycle it almost identically for the monastery of the Compagnia del Gesù at Cortona, 1554-55 (now Cortona, Museo Diocesano).
Standing behind Christ is Dismas, the 'good thief', who was crucified at the same time, and who had joined him on his journey to the underworld. Adam, the first man that God created, holds Christ's cross, and is flanked by Eve on the far left of the print.
See: Web Gallery of Art, http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/d/durer/2/12/3largep/index.html
Dr Mark Stocker, Curator Historical International Art December 2016