Albrecht Dürer - La Resurrezione

Christ in the Broken Stone: The Resurrection in the Great Passion of 1511
This large print depicts the Resurrection of Christ as an event of violent, material rupture. At the center of the composition, the naked body of the Risen One emerges from the tomb in an energetic twist, bent forward as with one hand he grasps and lifts an aged figure risen from the tomb. The gesture is physical, direct, devoid of solemn static grandeur: Christ’s body acts, weighs, drags. From the head radiates an intense light, rendered by dense lines that fan out in a radial pattern and organize the entire visual space.
The tomb appears as a broken and unstable architecture: crushed blocks of stone, torn slabs, tilted arches. Around it, the dead emerge from the tombs in contorted and disorderly postures, bodies still weighed down by the heaviness of the earth. On the left, a crowd of nude and semi-nude figures presses under an arch, while above and at the edges monstrous and demonic creatures appear, driven toward the shadowy areas. In the upper right, a winged armed figure dominates the upper space, underscoring the conflictual character of the scene.
The composition is crossed by strong diagonals and by a stark contrast between light and darkness. The light is not atmospheric but incisive: it cuts the forms, highlights the muscles, separates the planes. The whole conveys an image of the Resurrection as a dynamic and corporeal event, in which the victory over death is represented through effort, the fracture of matter, and the subjugation of lower forces, without any concession to a pacified or contemplative notion of triumph.
Market value
The laid-paper reproductions of the Große Passion, published by Amsler & Ruthardt at the end of the nineteenth century, show higher valuations for plates with greater visual impact, such as The Resurrection. Complete sets exceed €2,500. The print quality, fidelity to the original mark, and the purity of the impression make these reissues among the most appreciated in the market for historicist German graphic art.

Physical description and condition
Printed on rag paper, large format (sheet approx. 433 × 315 mm; image 390 × 280 mm). A well-preserved specimen, with a sharp impression, a clean and even mark. On the reverse of the sheet is the typographic print in Latin, reproduced in Renaissance typeface according to the layout of the original edition of 1511.

Full title and author
The Resurrection, from the Große Passion
Nineteenth-Century Reproduction
Amsler & Ruthardt, Berlin, late 19th century
Original composition by Albrecht Dürer

Context and Significance
La Große Passion, realized by Dürer between 1497 and 1510 and published in 1511, constitutes one of the supreme syntheses of German Renaissance figural thought. In the Resurrection, the artist abandons every residue of symbolic quietude to construct an image of rupture: the tomb is not a container but a violated threshold, matter shatters, light acts as an organizing force. The figure of Christ becomes the vertical axis of the cosmos, a point of convergence between divine order and the lower world. The Amsler & Ruthardt edition faithfully restores the format, mark, and visual arrangement, transforming the Dürer masterpiece into a tool for study, collection, and critical transmission.

Biography of the Author
Albrecht Dürer was born in Nuremberg in 1471 and was the greatest interpreter of the German Renaissance. Painter, engraver, mathematician and theoretician of art, he united Nordic rigor with Italian harmony. His woodcuts and engravings, including Melencolia I, The Knight, Death and the Devil and the Passion series, decisively marked European figurative culture. He died in Nuremberg in 1528.

Printing history and circulation
The firm Amsler & Ruthardt, founded in Berlin in 1861 and active until 1930, was one of the most authoritative engraving workshops and print galleries in German-speaking Europe. Its reproductions of Old Masters were produced with utmost philological fidelity. The edition of the Große Passion reproduces the format and layout of the first edition of 1511, with each plate accompanied by the original Latin text printed on the back, and was intended for scholars, museums, and collectors.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Bartsch, Adam, The Painter-Engraver, Vienna, 1808–1821, vol. VII.
Meder, Joseph, Dürer Catalog, Vienna, 1932.
Strauss, Walter L., The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer, New York, 1967.
Dodgson, Campbell, Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts, London, 1903.
Amsler & Ruthardt, Directory of old copper engravings, woodcuts, and etchings, Berlin, editions between 1880 and 1900.