Description
The Angel with the Key to Bottomless Pit shows an angel restraining a dragon-like creature beside a rocky opening while two other angels stand above with raised hands. A city fills the distance beyond the encounter, its walls and towers contrasting with the fantastical body in the foreground. The scene gives the angel’s downward action a tangible setting of rock, vegetation and inhabited land.
Albrecht Dürer’s woodcut presents the apocalyptic binding of evil through a closely observed struggle. Wings and heavy folded cloth frame the angel’s body, while the creature’s claws and scales create a restless pattern below. The distant city extends the stakes of the encounter toward the human world. Fine lines make both the ordinary landscape and the extraordinary figures vivid, giving the compact composition depth as well as dramatic force.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Dürer collection.
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