Collect this outstanding and rare etching by Albrecht Dürer titled "Samson Rending the Lion" from The Apocalypse series. This print, one of the great early Renaissance woodcuts created around 1497–1498, illustrates the biblical story from the Book of Judges in which Samson, empowered by divine strength, kills a lion with his bare hands. The print is especially important because it shows how Dürer transformed woodcut printing from a relatively simple illustration technique into a sophisticated fine art medium. Contemporary viewers were astonished by the technical detail and dramatic energy he achieved using carved wood blocks.
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Artist bio: Albrecht Dürer was regarded as the greatest German Renaissance artist. His work includes altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, engravings, and woodcuts. It's fair to say that without Albrecht Dürer, printmaking as we know it within art history and contemporary art, would not exist. Despite living approximately 500 years ago, he remains one of the most famous and important printmakers in art history, in particular bringing woodcuts printed in large editions into the realm of fine art and the art history canon. Even though Albrecht Dürer's fame was largely built on his prints and graphic style, his financial income was secured with commissions of paintings of religious subjects and portraits, and these works remain held in high esteem for their draughtsmanship and use of color. He was, and remains, the most famous artist of the Northern Renaissance who successfully integrated an elaborately-detailed Northern style with Italian Renaissance's ideals of balance, coherence, and monumentality. Dürer was the first artist to sign a piece of art. He was also the first artist that won a copyright lawsuit
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