In the century after Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type, books and other printed materials began to flourish, and in doing so, many artisans began to decorate such items with marvelous woodcuts. Three centuries after their publication, Lessing J. Rosenwald (the retired chairman of Sears, Roebuck, and Company) acquired many of these masterworks at a sale sponsored by their then owner, C.W. Dyson Perrins. Eventually, Rosenwald willed these works to the Library of Congress, and they have just recently created this online exhibit to complement a current exhibit in Washington, DC. In the introduction to the exhibit, visitors can read about Rosenwald and Perrins, and also learn a bit about how a woodcut is created. The exhibit itself is divided into one section that deals with works from the 15th century, and another that deals with the 16th century. Some of the highlights featured here include images from a 1506 commentary on the Passion of Christ as executed by the Swiss artist, Urs Graf. Another set of gems are the lovely woodcuts from Jacob Wolff’s 1501 edition of Aesop’s life and fables.
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