About this artwork
A pair of prints from opposite sides of the Alps demonstrates the didactic capabilities of devotional printmaking. Both depict a sacred mountain that the soul must climb toward heaven. In Baccio Baldini’s extremely early engraved book illustration of an Italianate ladder of virtues, a monk successfully ascends, while a fashionable young man is dragged away by a demon representing worldly pleasures. Its thistle-laden German counterpart (1947.473) consists of banderole rungs filled with xylographic text and a crowned Christ waiting in glory. A nun kneeling at the bottom may have commissioned the print. She envisions a torturous journey up the steep incline, her twelve-step program advocating different Christian virtues: faith, generosity, modesty, constancy, justice, strength, will, patience, obedience, humility and at long last, divinity.
-
Status
- Currently Off View
-
Department
- Prints and Drawings
-
Artist
- Baccio Baldini
-
Title
- The Holy Mountain, folio 3 from The Holy Mountain (Monte Sancto di Dio)
-
Place
- Italy (Artist's nationality)
-
Date
- Made 1477
-
Medium
- Engraving in black with letterpress on verso, on ivory laid paper
-
Dimensions
- 257 × 185 mm (plate); 275 × 189 mm (sheet)
-
Credit Line
- Purchased with funds provided by the Blum-Kovler Foundation
-
Reference Number
- 1968.419
-
IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/29763/manifest.json
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.