Albrecht Dürer

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.