Beck, Leonhard, German, c1480-1542

Saint Wolfgangus [St. Wolfgang], No 118

      Hollstein II, 170. Numbered in block upper right: "118". A fine impression, in fine condition on laid paper. With dampstain at lower bottom margin and a 1/8" foxing stain near church roof. Also with slight scattered foxing at paper edges, not affecting image, with full margins. The original "Images of the Saints", a series of 119 woodcuts, was completed by Hans Burgkmair (1473-1531), Hans Schaufelein (ca.1480-1540), and Leonhard Beck at the court of the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1531). The series was one of many commissioned by Maximilian to immortalize his reign as emperor. Most of the series were printed in very few impressions during the emperor's reign and remain very rare. Bartsch printed a new edition of the series after securing the original blocks in the 1790's. Beck designed woodcuts at the court of Maximilian I from 1512 until the early 1520s.Saint Wolfgangus (934-994) is known as one of the three brilliant stars of the tenth century, St. Ulrich, St. Conrad, and St. Wolfgang. After the death of Archbishop Henry of Trier, a close friend of St. Wolfgang, Wolfgang entered the Order of St. Benedict in the Abbey of Maria Einsiedeln, Switzerland, and was ordained priest by St. Ulrich in 968. After the death of Bishop Michael of Ratisbon, Bishop Piligrim obtained from the emperor the appointment of Wolfgang as Bishop of Ratisbon. After the summer of 983, St. Wolfgang withdrew as a hermit to a solitary spot, now the Lake of St. Wolfgang, apparently on account of a political dispute, but probably in the course of a journey of inspection to the monastery of Mendsee which was under the direction of the bishops of Ratisbon. He was discovered by a hunter and brought back to Ratisbon. While traveling on the Danube to Lower Austria, he fell ill at the village of Pupping, and at his request, was carried into the chapel of St. Othmar, where he died. 9 1/4 X 8 1/4 inches