print
- Museum number
- E,4.68
- Description
-
Virgin and Child seated on a grass bench, with a monkey in the foreground and a fisherman's house in the background. c.1498
Engraving
- Production date
- 1498
- Dimensions
-
Height: 191 millimetres
-
Width: 123 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Entry from 'Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy' exh cat BM, 2002-3, no.194:
'The landscape in the background of this print is based on Dürer’s watercolour taken from nature 'Fisherman’s house on a lake', cat.no 193 (Sloane 5218-165). The positions of the Virgin and Child reflect the classicism and interest in structural form visible in Italian art which Dürer studied while he was in Italy from 1494-5. In this respect, the print contrasts well with his earlier engraving of the same subject, 'Virgin and Child with a Dragonfly', cat.no 28, in which the influence of Schongauer’s heavy, angular drapery is still dominant. The engraving is one of the most popular of Dürer’s works, and fifteen printed copies are recorded (see Strauss TIB, pp.99ff). The success of its appeal was due in part to the mixture of Italianate forms with northern landscape elements and the exotic element of the monkey. It was also due to Dürer’s virtuoso engraving technique, which shows here his superlative skill at distinguishing a range of textures.'
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1971 BM, Dürer, no.18
1992 Feb-Mar, Atami, Moa Museum of Art, World Wildlife Fund Exh
1995 Jun-Oct, BM, 'German Renaissance Prints, 1490-1550', no.11
1997 Mar-Jun, London, National Gallery, 'Dürer: St. Jerome'
1997 Jun-Aug, Manchester, Whitworth AG, 'Dürer's St Jerome'
2002-3 Dec - March, London BM, Dürer and his Legacy, no.194
2004 Mar-Jun, London, National Gallery, 'Dürer and the Virgin in the Garden'
- Acquisition date
- 1799
- Acquisition notes
- Laid down
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- E,4.68