Foot washing

The artist copied Dürers around 1508/09 designed woodcut “Die Foot Wash,” part of his “Kleinen Passion,” published for the first time in 1511, reduced in size and from the opposite side. As early as 1827, Heller published the presumption that this was not a direct copy after Dürer’s woodcut, but after the copper-stitch copy that Abraham von Waesberge (1602-1672) had laid in The Hague (cf. Heller Dürer 1827 II.610). The main scene takes place in the foreground of a space illuminated by the two candles of a ceiling lamp. Christ kneels on the ground, has a apron tied around his hip and bends over the water bowl in which he thoroughly washes the feet of Peter sitting opposite him. This grabs the forehead in a embarrassing way. John appears as a helper and holds a pot and cloth behind Christ. The surrounding apostles react to the events by turning to each other, talking to each other and gesturing. Heller mentioned three conditions: in front of the script, with the address of the Augsburg publisher Melchior Küsel and with the number “3” at the bottom right (cf. Heller Dürer 1827 II.565,1251).