A traditional medium for German art, woodcut was important in the Renaissance, in the work of Albrecht Dürer and others, as well as in early-twentieth-century Northern Expressionism. It seems clear that Kiefer took up the medium to embrace Germanic tradition and to reinforce the Germanic stories announced by his titles, inscriptions, and images. Kiefer's works using woodcut are unusually large and consist of numerous individual sheets printed from different carved blocks and planks. He carves the blocks himself, usually employing limewood, and then prints multiple sheets from the same individual blocks. Later, he assembles the sheets into one large composite image, which he often modifies with overpainting.