Joshua, from De Biblie uth der uthlegginge Doctoris Martini Luthers

Art Historical Context

This woodcut of Joshua comes from a 16th-century Low German Bible edited with commentary by Martin Luther and printed by Ludwig Dietz. Created by Erhard Altdorfer, the image belongs to the wave of illustrated Protestant Bibles that emerged during the Reformation. Altdorfer, active in northern Germany and closely tied to the Danube School, specialized in woodcuts that combined clear narrative scenes with lively detail, helping make scripture visually accessible to a broad audience. Woodcuts like this one were revolutionary for their time: carved into blocks, inked, and printed in large numbers, they allowed reformers to circulate biblical stories alongside Luther’s text at relatively low cost. The figure of Joshua, shown as a resolute leader, underscores themes of faith and divine guidance central to Lutheran teaching. Such illustrations served both devotional and educational purposes, guiding readers—many of them newly literate—through the Old Testament narratives. Today the sheet is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection as part of the Elisha Whittelsey Collection. Its modest size and crisp line work remind us how printmaking helped shape religious culture across Europe, turning a single carved block into a widely shared image of biblical heroism.