ORIGINAL WOODCUT FROM 

THE SHIP OF THE FOOLS

WRITTEN BY SEBASTIAN BRANT

 PRINTED IN STRASBURG IN 1520

 AND ATTRIBUTED TO 

THE YOUNG ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471 - 1528)

AND HIS SCHOOL

1520

front

close-up

reverse

ORIGINAL 1520 WOODCUT BY ALBRECHT DÜRER ( 1471 - 1528) AND HIS SCHOOL. 

K. A.  KNAPPE, in his famous book published in 1964, attributes most of the woodcuts done for SEBASTIAN BRANT'S  " Ship of the Fools" to the young DÜRER or his school: "The bubbling of life is intense in The Ship of Fools, one of the great themes of the day, demonstrating human stupidity, as shown here through word and image. The wide variety of characters, coming from different levels of society and professions, each of them wears a fool’s cap, appearing in scenes from this "bonfire of the vanities". Dürer manages to distinguish the various types of men with evident skill. He varies his method of representing this fundamental issue. The message is reinforced and, with this, the psychological impact, the expressive force of the faces and gestures."  Cited from "K. A. KNAPPE, Dürer 1964"

Notes on SEBASTIAN BRANT, Das Narrenschift translated from Dürer, L'opera incisoria by Marco Michieli:
"Sebastian Brant, born in Strasbourg (1457-1521) and professor of law in Basel, was a humanist whose interests spanned from Virgil and Petrarch to Latin poems by the doctors of the Church. Dürer made a portrait of him in Antwerp in 1521. Das Narrenschift is his best-known poem, written in Alsatian dialect and then translated into Latin as Stultifera navis mortalium (Basel, 1497) and then into English, French, and Flemish. The work, which inspired many Northern European artists, is both didactic and satirical. A boat filled with fools travels to the land of Narragonien only to sink at the end of the tale.
The poem contains 116 illustrations, 75 of which have been attributed to Dürer. Others probably made the woodcarvings after the artist left Basel. The woodcuts are in keeping with its spirit in that they condemn and illustrate the ridiculousness of vanity and human stupidity, caused both by cardinal sins as well as by weaknesses and beliefs that are apparently innocuous. The key motif in each depiction is the jester’s cap that highlights the fool and his blindness to morality and his actions. At times, the layout and the composition of the images bring to mind popular provincial tarot cards."

The last photo shows the colophon from the book that the page was taken. It shows the printing date, 1520, and the city, Strasbourg. A photocopy of the colophon page will be shipped along with the original woodcut page.   

Page Size: 14.50 in.  x 10.50 in.

Woodcut size: 4.50 in. x 3.25

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NOTE: Domestic Priority Mail shipping costs a flat rate of $7.00 no matter how many pages in this series you purchase.
International Priority Mail shipping costs a flat rate of $13.00 no matter how many pages in this series you purchase. Please see my other auctions for more leaves from this book.

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