The Passion: Christ in Limbo

c. 1480

The Passion: Christ in Limbo, c. 1480. Martin Schongauer (German, c.1450–1491). Engraving; sheet: 16.5 x 11.7 cm (6 1/2 x 4 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 2015.20 Martin Schongauer's series of the Passion of Christ was his largest set of engravings, made around 1480, and extensively copied across Europe. It consists of twelve prints detailing the suffering of Christ in the last days of his life. Schongauer's version focuses on crowded scenes, grotesque physiognomies of Christ's tormentors, and great pathos in the compositions. Here, Schongauer represented the episode in which Christ, between his death and resurrection, descended into Limbo to bring salvation to the righteous ones who had died before him. Christ majestically strides over a vanquished demon crushed under his foot, and holds Adams with his left hand. This image of Christ trampling a monstrous demon and piercing it with his cross recalls the one of Archangel Michael in another print by Martin Schongauer (1952.99).