print
- Museum number
- 1924,0419.1
- Title
- Series: Life of the Virgin
- Description
-
One of the series of 20 woodcuts, without text, on blue paper; the Adoration of the Magi, with the Holy Family amongst ruins on the right.
Woodcut
- Production date
- 1503 (design of block; this impression mid to late 16thc)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 300 millimetres
-
Width: 212 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This is one of seventeen woodcuts that Dürer designed between 1503 and 1505 for his 'Life of the Virgin' series. Dürer is known to have used blue paper in his drawings, but not in his prints. This impression shows that the block is worn - densely hatched lines in the folds of drapery and the eaves of the roof, and fine details such as the right eye of the Virgin have become blurred and print as solid black areas. This makes it more likely that the impression dates from later in the sixteenth century during the 'Dürer renaissance' period when Dürer's work was much admired and highly sought after, but not easily available. The blue paper was used to smarten up the worn block in the same way that tone blocks were added by the publisher Janssen to improve the appearance of Dürer's Rhinoceros and Ulrich Varnbüler woodcuts in the early seventeenth century.
The story of Wise Men or Magi coming from the east to worship the newly born Christ is recounted in the Gospel of St Matthew (II: 1-12). They were guided to him by a star, shown in the print in the upper left. The Magi are not identified in the Bible, but a visual tradition developed that depicted them as exotic turbaned figures with one of them (Balthasar), as here in Dürer's print, an African.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2006-7 Nov - Jan. BM, Nativity show (no cat.)
2014 Feb-May, London, National Gallery, 'Strange Beauty'
- Acquisition date
- 1924
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1924,0419.1
