The Angel with the Key to the Bottomless Pit, 1498

Woodcut.

From the Apocalypse (Revelation 21:9-21).... The Angel with the key seized the dragon, who is Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the Abyss .....The Angel then carried me away to a great high mountain and showed me the Holy City of Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven Reference: Meder 178. Bartsch 75. Hollstein VII.143.178 without watermark. Sheet: 15 1/2 x 11 1/8 in; 394 x 282 mm. Clear, fine impression of the final leaf of the series in the original edition of 1498. Provenance: Friedrich Quiring, Eberswalde (L. 1041c), a collection known for its exceptional works by Durer, Altdorfer, van Ostade, and Rembrandt.

“After Durer published his fifteen large woodcuts of the Apocalypse in 1498, neither the woodcut as a graphic medium nor the imagery of St John’s Revelation could ever be regarded as before. Durer elevated both beyond all expectations warranted by his antecedents” …. from Durer in America, His Graphic Work, National Gallery of Art, 1971.