2 woodcuts from the Apocalypse.

Woodcuts, 39,2 x 27,1 cm, laid paper, monogrammed AD (very heavily damaged, toned, edges frayed with loss of image, several tears and holes).

Stuck under passe-partout

The first woodcut represents the opening of the seventh seal and the eagle crying 'Woe'. In Heaven God is distributing trumpets to seven angels, underneath a crying eagle is flying towards earth, which is in chaos. Latin letterpress text on the verso. An impression from the 1498 Latin edition of Dürer's most magnificent and best-known series of 15 woodcuts. " There was a long tradition of Apocalypse illustrations in manuscripts, which continued in printed books, but nothing like Dürer's galvinising imagination had ever been brought to bear on the text. In previously printed Bibles, illustrations had been put on pages along with the words, but Dürer gave precedence to the image, taking an entire large page of what he himself called a "superbook" for each of his fifteen subjects." (The Metropolitan Museum New York).
The second print depicts the Whore of Babylon. Clothed in a Venetian costume and holding a cup aloft, she is mounted on a beast with seven heads, with the destruction of Babylon in the background. From the 1511 impression with German letterpress text from the Revelation of St John on the verso.
Ref. Meder 170, 177. - German Hollstein 170, 177. - Schoch 2001-04 II.118.