= Rare, iconical series in early 17th cent. impressions. From Georg Scherer, Preces ac meditationes piae in mysteria passionis ac resurrectionis D.N. Jesu Christi (Brussels, H. Anthonius,1625). Corners darkened from former framing (mainly in blank margins, but affecting the corners of the image in a few prints).The Engraved Passion, a series of 16 small plates of almost identical format, was created by Dürer over a period of six years from 1507 to 1513 and is considered one of his greatest achievements in the graphic medium. He himself valued the series highly, and sold it for more than twice the price of the Large Woodcut Passion. He also gave sets to the most prominent and influential patrons he encountered on his travels, including Margaret of Austria and Erasmus of Rotterdam. Between the earliest plates in the series to the latest, one can see Dürer develop a new style, characterized by a more systematic and varied use of the engraved line. Rather than relying on descriptive outlines, the space, shapes and bodies are increasingly modeled out of light and shade alone. In the later plates he almost covers the entire picture plane with crosshatching and shading of different density, leaving only a few dramatic highlights, thereby creating a chiaroscuro style which revolutionised the print medium. Durer sold many of the sheets individually. Panofsky suggests that it had a very different audience in mind from that of the Small Woodcut Passion: "The format of the Engraved Passion differs from that of the Small [Woodcut] Passion by what may be called an aristocratic slenderness of proportion: It is about 4.5 by 3 inches as against 5 x 4. No text was considered necessary since it was not conceived as an edifying book but rather as a "collectors item," to be relished by the art lover instead of by the devout. In spite of its brevity (as compared to the Small [Woodcut] Passion) it has something sumptuous about it. It stresses spiritual suffering rather than physical torture and never loses sight of the preterhuman dignity of Christ." Vasari (1568 edition of the Lives in The Life of Pontormo) calls these "the ultimate in perfection and quality attainable in the medium as regards beauty, variety of vestments, and composition."