Silver Statuette of St. James the Greater, from the "Wittenberg Reliquaries" (Woodcut, Met-Objekt 2461)
Original title: Silver Statuette of St. James the Greater, from the "Wittenberg Reliquaries"
kurzbeschreibung
Lucas Cranach the Elder recorded this silver statuette of Saint James the Greater as a woodcut. The sheet belongs to a series that documented the relics of the Wittenberg collection in pictures. Kept monochrome, the print reproduces many details of the original.
Description
The saint wears the customary dress of a pilgrim, with robe and cap. His right hand closes around a scroll, his left around a staff, both pointing to his role as a helper of pilgrims. The bearded face sits beneath a hat. No background at all is given, so nothing distracts from the figure. Sharp lines trace the contours and make surfaces and the texture of cloth legible.
Context
The print comes from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, who held the post of court painter to the Saxon electors in Wittenberg. The relic series was made in the early sixteenth century to record the large collection of Frederick the Wise. Sheets like this spread knowledge of the relics kept in the castle church at Wittenberg and encouraged their veneration.
Impact
Because the figure stands against an empty ground, the eye stays fixed on it alone. The precise draughtsmanship gives the sheet a graphic quality and underlines the saint's dignity. With colour absent, the structure of the image and the individual attributes of the pilgrim stand out more clearly.
Technique
A relief process, the woodcut works by cutting the design out of a wooden block and then printing it. The clear lines and the exact rendering of the silver statuette show how confidently the printing workshop operated. An edition of this series existed, serving to put the relics before a wider public.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)