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Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)
Coat of Arms of Michael Behaim, ca. 1520
Woodcut
11 5/8 x 8 1/8 inches (295 x 206 mm)
Purchased by the Morgan Library, 1930; 2006.81
Original woodblock for Coat of Arms of Michael Behaim
Wood
11 1/8 x 7 3/4 inches (282 x 197 mm) Purchased by J. P. Morgan, Jr., 1926; AZ127
See CORSAIR catalog record for this item »
It was through his printmaking that Dürer's skill as a draftsman gained international recognition. He worked in engraving, etching, and the form used here, woodcut. Heraldic designs, in this case the coat of arms of the Behaim family, were a major type of commission. This print, perhaps a bookplate, was made for Michael Behaim, a Nuremberg patrician whose name appears on a legal document as witness to Dürer's purchase of a garden in 1512. The Morgan is fortunate also to have in its collection the woodblock used to make this print. A comparison of the block and the print illustrates the reversal that occurred in the printing process.
Transcription and translation of letter from Albrecht Dürer to Michael Behaim
+zoom letterLibr her michell beheim
Ich shick ewch dis waben
widr pit latz beleiben es
wurt ewchs so keiner
verpessern dan Ich habs
mit fleis kunstlich gemacht
dorudys sehen vud ferstend
dy werden ewch woll
berscheid sagn soll man dy
lewble awff dem helm vber
sich werffen so verdecken
su dy pinden.
E...vndertan
Albrecht Dürer
Dear Master Michael
Beheim, I send you back
the coat of arms again.
Please let it stand as it is.
No one could improve
it for you because it was
made artistically and with
care. Those who see it
and understand such
matters will tell you so.
If the leafwork on the
helmet were curled
backward, it would hide
the braid.
Your humble servant
Albrecht Dürer
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