The Betrayal of Christ, from "The Small Passion"
Original title: The Betrayal of Christ, from "The Small Passion"
kurzbeschreibung
Albrecht Dürer's woodcut 'The Betrayal of Christ' was made around 1509 and depicts the arrest of Jesus. It belongs to the Small Passion, a series of scenes from the life and suffering of Christ. The work is executed in woodcut technique and measures 12.7 x 9.8 cm.
Description
Christ sits at the center, surrounded by armed men in contemporary clothing. A figure—likely Judas—approaches with a chalice. Behind them, a scuffle breaks out involving other participants. The layout packs many figures together, each looking and acting in different directions. Black on white, without color nuances, the light distribution remains even, as is typical for woodcuts.
Context
Between 1507 and 1512, Dürer worked on the Small Passion; in 1511 it was published as a book with 37 woodcuts. The artist was then active in Nuremberg as a freelance master. The prints were aimed at a broad audience and intended for private devotion. The Betrayal of Christ is one of the core episodes of the Passion narrative and appears several times in Dürer's work.
Impact
The crowded arrangement of figures and sharp contours create a tense yet orderly scene. The viewer feels immediately drawn into the action, while Christ's calm contrasts with the surrounding commotion.
Technique
The monochrome appearance of this sheet sharpens the depiction's focus on line and form, giving the dense figure composition a stark, immediate clarity. Dürer's precise cutting allows faces and garment details to emerge with striking definition, while the even tonal values typical of the medium unify the scene's varied actions into a single expressive surface.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)