- Museum number
- 1895,0915.258
- Description
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The death of the Virgin; she lies on a bed in the centre surrounded by the twelve apostles, with a tall, ornamental candlestick in the foreground. c.1470-74
Engraving
- Production date
- 1470-1474
- Dimensions
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Height: 258 millimetres
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Width: 170 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Text from Giulia Bartrum, 'German Renaissance Prints, 1490-1550', BM 1995, no.3:
'This image was judged in my youth to be the finest work of art to have come out of Germany, therefore I pasted it into my Bible, not because of the story which may or may not be true [properly portrayed]. However, since the unsurpassed engraver Dürer of Nuremberg began to make his art, this [estimation of quality] no longer holds. The engraver was called 'Hübsch Martin' ['fine Martin'] on account of his art." Thus wrote an embroiderer, Hans Plock of Halle in around 1550 beneath his impression of this engraving, which he had pasted, along with numerous other drawings and prints, into his copy of Luther's Bible (see Landau and Parshall, p. 52). This interesting comment clearly indicates that, even by the early part of the sixteenth century, Schongauer was considered to be the founder of a school of German engraving, to be superseded only by Dürer, and that his prints were much sought after at an early date for their artistic skill rather than the subjects they portrayed.
The 'Death of the Virgin' was executed by 1481, the date on a copy engraved after it by Wenzel von Olmütz. It is a good example of the narrative type of subject which Schongauer used to demonstrate his skills as an engraver. Its form, with the bed surrounded by figures facing the spectator, is related to Dutch paintings of the same subject by Dirck Bouts (c. 1420-75) and Hugo van der Goes (c.1420-82), but Schongauer has heightened the dramatic intensity of the scene with the use of emotive gesture and agitated movement of figures and drapery. He has used the painter's device of a single light source, from the left foreground, to unify the composition, yet his skill as an engraver is apparent in the manner in which strokes of varying length, width and depth are engraved to make the light flicker over the various forms. There is also a significant reminder of his connection with the goldsmith's profession, in the elaborate portrayal of the candlestick in the foreground.
This is a very fine impression of the first state of the print, in which the quality and detail of Schongauer's technique stand out clearly. He incised his plates much more deeply than earlier engravers such as the Master E.S. (active 1450-67), whose prints have survived in fewer numbers. This enabled a longer print-run to be produced of impressions with sharp images, a lesson soon learnt by Dürer who, like Schongauer, desired to exploit the commercial value of engravings.'
Additional information: The composition was reproduced in one of the finest pieces of early Italian maiolica to have survived. (British Museum, Henderson bequest,1878,1230.407; see D.Thornton and T.Wilson, 'Italian Renaissance Ceramics: A catalogue of the British Museum collection,' vol.I, London, 2009, p. 105, under no. 68) The design on the dish, which was probably produced in Faenza, c.1510-15, was taken from a reversed copy of this print such as the one by Israhel van Meckenem (see 1845,0809.330).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1995 Jun-Oct, BM, 'German Renaissance Prints', BM 1995, no.3
2003 Oct-Dec, Tokyo, Metropolitan Art Museum, Treasures of BM
2004 Jan-Mar, Kobe, City Museum, Treasures of BM
2004 Apr-Jun, Fukuoka, City Museum, Treasures of BM
2004 Jun-Aug, Niigata, Prefectural Mus of Fine Arts, Treasures of BM
2019-2020 14 Nov-12 Jan, London, BM, G90a, '50th Anniversary of the Harold Wright Scholarship'
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Acquisition notes
- The price of DM 8000 at the Prestel sale in 1875 (approx £395) was the highest price paid for a single item in the entire sale
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0915.258