Good impression on ivory paper. Brilliant woodcut showing opening of the 7th seal by Dürer. His designs would have been handed over to professional woodcarvers to make the woodblock from which the print would have been taken. Some of these blocks still exist, for example, in the British Museum in London. Countless engravings were made after this print and this is a good example from the early XX century. It shows his monogram in the bottom edge AD which he added to prevent others, for example Marcantonio Raimondi, from making unauthorised copies. The opening of the seventh seal and the eagle crying 'Woe'; above, God distributes trumpets to seven angels, underneath a crying eagle is flying towards earth, which is in chaos One of 15 illustrations of the 1498 German edition. c.1496-7 Woodcut (British Museum) This print is one of 15 woodcuts by Dürer that depicted scenes of the Apocalypse as described by John the Apostle in the Book of Revelations of the New Testament in the Bible (Revelations 9:13-21). In Dürer’s drama-filled illustration of The Seventh Seal (c.1496-97), (the seventh woodcut in the series), he shows the brief pause before the final three trumpet players sound their horns and an angel (in the form of an eagle) flies down crying ‘Woe, Woe, Woe’, in anticipation of the final catastrophic blows. This passage seems to reference the unwriting of the world as the scroll of heaven is unsealed (represented by Durer as a large chest, perhaps the better to show the seven seals, despite Revelation stating that it was a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals!) while seven angels sound their trumpets, each trumpet blast causing devastation and destruction on earth. Bibliographic references Meder 1932 / Dürer Katalog (171) Bartsch / Le Peintre graveur (VII.128.69) Dodgson 1903, 1911 / Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts in the BM, 2 vols (I.260.1) Schoch 2001-04 / Albrecht Dürer, das druckgraphische Werk. 3 vols I Intaglio, II Woodcuts, III Book illustrations (II.119) (British Museum) A late nineteenth century impression printed in Utrecht; 1897. Condition is good.