Christ on the Tau Cross

In the preceding chapters we have seen the layered ritual associations between the wood of the German landscape, the Wood of the Cross, and the liturgical use of objects that depict and/or are made from wood within the devotional practices of the church as they intersected with folk belief. Next, we will explore how artworks, in their...

Throughout the annals of early printmaking, woodcuts have tended to be accorded second-class status. Indeed, it is fair to say that over most of its six hundred year history the woodcut has served a less demanding market, and done so without the need for exceptional refinements in draftsmanship or block cutting. The many hundreds of thousands if not millions of catchpenny prints sold to adults as well as children over the centuries attest to the importance of the woodcut as an efficient, if …