Saint Otilia from Plenarium, Plate 27 from Woodcuts from Books of the 15th Century

Prints and Drawings

c. 1483, portfolio assembled 1929

Unknown Artist (Strassburg, late 15th century)
printed and published by Martin Schott (German, active 1481–1499)
portfolio text by Wilhelm Ludwig Schreiber (German, 1855–1932)

When is a book illustration not a book illustration? These leaves (1938.86.27 and 1938.88.52) were removed from their original texts in the early twentieth century and grouped into portfolios celebrating fifteenth and sixteenth-century book illustrations. Yet the Saint Otilia bears an early owner’s mark from her previous life, and this viewer or another early user has augmented the saint’s halo; the border of the altar showing Christ’s Resurrection; and the muscles on the soul escaping the mouth of hell in Otilia’s vision. In contrast, Jost Amman’s book boasted many woodcuts with spaces intentionally left blank for viewers to complete with their personal coats of arms, an option not realized on this particular sheet.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Unknown artist (Illustrator)
Title: Saint Otilia from Plenarium, Plate 27 from Woodcuts from Books of the 15th Century
Place: Germany (Artist's nationality)
Date: Original 1480–1483
Medium: Woodcut in black with pen and gray ink additions, and letterpress in black with rubrication (recto and verso), on cream laid paper
Dimensions: Image: 6.7 × 7.6 cm (2 11/16 × 3 in.); Sheet: 28.3 × 21 cm (11 3/16 × 8 5/16 in.)
Credit Line: Print Sales Miscellaneous Fund
Reference Number: 1938.86.27
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The Art Institute of Chicago, “Altered and Adorned: Using Renaissance Prints in Daily Life,” April 30–July 10, 2011, cat. 27.

Schreiber 4960

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