Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level D , Case EL, Shelf 82, Box D

St. Anthony

Print
1519 (engraved)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Engraving by Albrecht Dürer, 'St. Anthony'; 1519, Nuremberg. Inscribed with date and artist's monogram. Horizontal-format print depicting St Anthony seated in the foreground overlooking a river, intently focused on a bible or prayer book, with a town rising on the hill behind him. Also known as St. Anthony the Abbot or St. Anthony of Egypt (c.251-356), this Christian saint was an Egyptian hermit and one of the founders of monasticism. During the Middle Ages, he was venerated in the German Rhineland as one of the Four Holy Marshals, invoked against infectious diseases including the plague, and ergotism or ‘Saint Anthony’s fire’. He is shown wearing a hooded monastic robe with a mendicant’s rod planted in the ground beside him, bearing his emblem, a bell, rung by monks of his Order asking for alms. The northern European setting is clearly indicated by the architectural style of the town, its tall narrow buildings, towers and fortifications evoking 16th-century Nuremberg. The composition encloses the saint within the landscape, the outline of the town echoing his hunched shape.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleSt. Anthony (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Engraving on paper
Brief description
St Anthony by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528); engraving
Physical description
Engraving by Albrecht Dürer, 'St. Anthony'; 1519, Nuremberg. Inscribed with date and artist's monogram. Horizontal-format print depicting St Anthony seated in the foreground overlooking a river, intently focused on a bible or prayer book, with a town rising on the hill behind him. Also known as St. Anthony the Abbot or St. Anthony of Egypt (c.251-356), this Christian saint was an Egyptian hermit and one of the founders of monasticism. During the Middle Ages, he was venerated in the German Rhineland as one of the Four Holy Marshals, invoked against infectious diseases including the plague, and ergotism or ‘Saint Anthony’s fire’. He is shown wearing a hooded monastic robe with a mendicant’s rod planted in the ground beside him, bearing his emblem, a bell, rung by monks of his Order asking for alms. The northern European setting is clearly indicated by the architectural style of the town, its tall narrow buildings, towers and fortifications evoking 16th-century Nuremberg. The composition encloses the saint within the landscape, the outline of the town echoing his hunched shape.
Dimensions
  • Height: 9.9cm
  • Width: 14.2cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
'1519 / AD' (Inscribed with date and artist's monogram towards bottom left.)
Credit line
Salting Bequest
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic references
  • Strauss, Walter L., ed. The Illustrated Bartsch 10 (Commentary): Sixteenth Century German Artists, Albrecht Dürer. New York: Abaris Books, 1980. 328 p., ill. ISBN 089835000X. B.58, pp.132-135.
  • Dodgson, C. The Masters of Engraving and Etching: Albrecht Dürer, London and Boston, 1926. 91.
  • Hollstein, F.W.H. German Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts, c.1400-1700. Volume VII. Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1954-. 51.
  • Rowlands, J.K. The Graphic Work of Albrecht Dürer: An Exhibition of his Prints and Drawings in Commemmoration of the Quincentenary of his Birth. London: British Museum, 1971. Exhibition catalogue. 248.
  • Schoch, R., M. Mende and A. Scherbaum. Albrecht Dürer. Das Druckgraphische Werk. Band I: Kupferstiche, Eisenradierungen und Kaltnadelblätter. Munich, London, New York, 2001. 87.
  • Bartrum, Guilia, ed. Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy - The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist / with contributions by Günter Grass, Joseph L. Koerner and Ute Kuhlemann. London: The British Museum Press, 2002. 320 p., ill. ISBN 0714126330. No.55, p.122.
  • Bartrum, Giulia. German Renaissance Prints 1490-1550. London: The British Museum Press, 1995. 240 p., ill. ISBN 0714126047. 42.
  • Heller, Joseph. Das Leben und die Werke Albrecht Dürer. Bamberg: 1827. Vols. 2 & 3 (vol. 1 was not published). 695.
  • Meder, Joseph. Dürer-Katalog: Ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustände, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen. Vienna, 1932. 51.
  • Tietze, Hans and Erika Tietze-Conrat. Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke Albrecht Dürers. Vol. 1, Augsburg 1928; vol.2, Basel and Leipzig 1937; vol.3, Basel and Leipzig, 1938. 730
  • Panofsky, Erwin. Albrecht Dürer. Princeton 1943. (Addenda in the editions of 1945 and 1948). 165.
  • Strauss, W.L. The Intaglio Prints of Albrecht Dürer . New York, 1977. 89.
  • Bartrum, Giulia. Albrech Dürer and his Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist. London British Museum, 2002, p 150
  • Panofsky, Erwin. The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design, Accessions 1910, London, Printed for His Majesty’s Stationery Office 1911
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design, Accessions 1910, London, Printed for His Majesty’s Stationery Office 1911
Other number
B.58 - Le Peintre-Graveur
Collection
Accession number
E.4622-1910

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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