Woodcut series: The Large Passion (1497-1500)

The Large Passion is named after the format of the series (39 x 28 cm). The whole series of twelve cuts did not appear till 1511 when Dürer published the cycle, together with a title page and a poem by the Benedictine theologian and friend of Willibald Pirckheimer, Benedictus Chelidonius (died 1521). The first seven woodcuts were executed between 1497 and 1500, then the series was completed by five cuts in 1510. The complete edition in book form appeared in 1511.

The pictures are distinguished by means of their strong emotions, naturalism and human treatment of the subject, thus distancing themselves from Late Gothic depictions of the Passion. Dürer considered the Passion to be the subject most worthy of representation in pictorial art, and he portrayed it five different times - a sixth version remained unfinished owing to his death. The subject, untrammelled by the strange pictorial apparatus of the Apocalypse, allows of a clearer expression of form and intention, and it is therefore easier to determine the dates.