Albrecht Dürer
German, 1471-1528
The First Knot
INV-2273
Albrecht Dürer
German, 1471-1528c. 1507
The First Knot
Albrecht Dürer German, 1471-1528 →woodcutprint
Date
c. 1507
Medium
Woodcut in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 27.5 × 21.4 cm (10 7/8 × 8 7/16 in.); Sheet: 29.1 × 23.1 cm (11 1/2 × 9 1/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Clarence Buckingham Collection
Around 1506, Albrecht Dürer designed a series of six ornate woodcuts of labyrinthine designs after a set of engravings by the school of Leonardo da Vinci, which he may have seen or acquired during an early trip to Italy. Though Dürer left them unsigned, possibly because he borrowed their source material, he referred in his diary to giving away his series of knots on a trip to the Netherlands, and this title has become standard. These impressions are printed on a thin, nearly translucent Italian paper, which may have influenced scholars to occasionally interpret them as embroidery patterns.
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