Durer Publishes Apocalypse Woodcuts

1498

Albrecht Durer, twenty-seven, issued fifteen monumental woodcuts illustrating the Book of Revelation. The technical refinement of the prints was unprecedented; their apocalyptic imagery seized the nervous end-of-century imagination. Durer had invented himself as both the greatest northern artist of his generation and a pioneering publisher of his own work. His decision to publish the series himself made him one of the first European artists to function as an independent entrepreneur.