The Small Woodcut Passion

The Small Woodcut Passion was designed and cut in a relatively short time, probably in the two years preceding its publication in 1511, the same year The Large Passion and The Life of the Virgin were issued, and like these it was published by Dürer himself. It is the most extensive of all his series, comprising 36 blocks, 34 of which have survived and are now in the British Museum. The English woodcutter John Thompson (1785-1866) examined the blocks, which are made from pear wood, and identified the work of four different woodcutters.
To the scenes from the Life of Christ and the Passion, Dürer added two images of the Fall of Man and the Expulsion from Paradise at the beginning, and of the Pentecost and the Last Judgement at the end of the series. He thereby put the Passion of Christ at the center of a larger, all-encompassing narrative of the Fall and Redemption of Mankind.
Many of Dürer's compositions for this series fill the entire image. Rather than leaving larger areas blank, as he did in his earlier woodcuts and engravings, he now covered much of the background with dense lines and hatchings to describe the architectural or natural - often nocturnal - setting of each scene. He thereby achieved what Erwin Panofsky described as the 'graphic middle tone', against which bright highlights and dark shadows stand out to great chiaroscuro effect. It is astonishing to see what Dürer could achieve in the woodcut medium on such a modest scale.