Saint Eustace — About This Work
Albrecht Dürer, c. 1501
About the Work
Saint Eustace depicts the conversion of the Roman general Placidus, who, while hunting, encounters a stag bearing a crucifix between its antlers. Dürer places the miraculous moment within an exceptionally elaborate landscape: Eustace kneels before the stag while his horse and hunting dogs occupy the foreground, and a road, bridge and distant castle lead the eye deep into the scene.
The Cleveland Museum of Art identifies this as Dürer’s largest engraving and emphasises his command of tonal values and textures. Nature is not simply a backdrop. Trees, rocks, water, animals, armour and the horse are all differentiated through densely controlled engraved line, making the small crucifix something the viewer discovers within a much larger field of observation.
The five hunting dogs are especially revealing of Dürer’s interest in bodies moving through space. Cleveland notes that he effectively shows a dog from five different angles, while the Metropolitan Museum describes the print as a long-admired demonstration of his virtuosity whose animals and landscape details became models for later artists. The religious narrative and the close study of the visible world therefore operate together rather than separately.
The Work
Artist: Albrecht Dürer
Title: Saint Eustace
Date: c. 1501
Medium: Engraving
Recorded dimensions: 26 × 35.4 cm
Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession number: 1958.109
Print & Presentation
Palatine presentation: 30 × 40 cm portrait frame.
The complete artwork is reproduced at its recorded scale, subject only to negligible whole-pixel rounding, without enlargement, reduction, cropping or distortion. The surrounding white presentation area accommodates the artwork within the framed presentation and is incorporated into the print rather than added as a separate mount.
Frame finishes: Black, White or Natural.
Paper & glazing: Enhanced Matte + Perspex; Enhanced Matte + Moth-Eye.
Why Original Scale?
Most art-print shops offer the same image in a choice of Small, Medium and Large sizes. We take a different approach. For each edition, we begin with the recorded dimensions of the original work and reproduce the complete image at that scale, preserving its proportions and avoiding enlargement, reduction, cropping or distortion.
Source: Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0.
Care: Display in a dry interior away from prolonged direct sunlight and sources of moisture.
Notes from Palatine
If you would like to stay with us, Notes from Palatine is an occasional letter about newly added works, artists and the thinking behind the collection. There is no fixed schedule; we write when there is something worth sharing.
Palatine Editions · Original Scale Editions · palatineeditions.com