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Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand

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Year
  
1508

Location
  
Kunsthistorisches Museum

Period
  
Northern Renaissance

Artist
  
Albrecht Dürer

Created
  
1508

Genre
  
Christian art

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand c1496 Albrecht Durer WikiArtorg

Type
  
Oil on panel transferred to canvas

Dimensions
  
99 cm × 87 cm (39 in × 34 in)

Similar
  
Albrecht Dürer artwork, Artwork at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Northern Renaissance artwork

The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand is an oil painting by Albrecht Dürer, dating to 1508 and now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, Austria. It is signed on a cartouche which hangs from the artist's self-portrait in the center, saying Iste fatiebat Ano Domini 1508 Albertus Dürer Aleman.

Contents

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Bread for Beggars

History

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand by Albrecht Drer my daily art

The painting was commissioned by Frederick III, Elector of Saxony for the All Saints' Church, Wittenberg. Frederick had been Dürer's patron since 1496. He himself chose the subject, as his collection of relics included some of the Ten thousand martyrs.

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Drer Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Albrecht Drer 1471 Flickr

Dürer had used the same subject for a woodcut of some ten years before, but in the new work he eliminated some macabre details such as the torture of the bishop Acacius, having his eyes stripped through a drill. This scene was replaced by a crucifixion on the right and by the presence of the bishop in chains behind it.

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand httpsuploads1wikiartorgimagesalbrechtdurer

The work was repeatedly mentioned in the correspondence between the artist and Jakob Heller of Frankfurt. Dürer received 280 florins for it.

Description

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Wikipedia

The painting illustrates the legendary martyrdom of ten thousand Christian soldiers perpetrated on Mount Ararat by the King of Persia, Shapur I, by the order of the Roman emperor Hadrian or Antoninus Pius, or, according to other sources, Diocletian.

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Wikipedia

Dürer painted numerous different martyrdom scenes within a forest with clearings and cliffs. In the foreground are crucifixions, decapitations, crushing with a hammer. The Persian King is portrayed as an Ottoman sultan, riding a horse on the right. The executioners also wear gaudy Ottoman dress. In the background are prisoners walking through to a cliff from where they are thrown down against rocks and thorny bushes, as well as scenes of fighting, stoning and hitting with huge clubs.

At the center of the crowded scene, dressed in black, are two characters who walk placidly, apparently unaware of the horrors around them: one is Dürer's self-portrait (holding his signature), the other his friend and humanist Conrad Celtes, who had died a few months before the execution of the painting.

References

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Wikipedia