Artwork Page for The Visitation

Details / Information for The Visitation

Series Title: The Life of the Virgin

The Visitation

c. 1504

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)
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Culture
Germany, early 16th Century
Medium
woodcut
Credit Line
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1959.99.9
Catalogue raisonné
Meder 196
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

These eight woodcuts (1959.99.8-15) progress from Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would bear the Son of God, to the events of her early motherhood and beyond. This included the joy of sharing her pregnancy with her cousin Elizabeth, Jesus’s birth, and the subsequent arrival of the magi. After Jesus’s circumcision and presentation at the temple the Holy Family fled to Egypt to avoid Herod and stayed there for several years. The seemingly out of place last scene shows a glimpse of their daily life in Egypt as Joseph continues his carpentry and Mary spins wool. The Holy Family is surrounded by angels and helpful putti and are blessed by God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove overhead.
A vertically oriented print in dense black-inked fine lines depicts two women with light skin tones grasping each other's shoulders in the center foreground. To our left, a bearded man stands in an arched doorway holding a bowl. A shaggy dog sits at their feet near a monogrammed tablet. On the right, three women observe the scene. The background features a rugged mountain landscape and hilltop castle beneath a sky of billowing clouds.

The Visitation

c. 1504

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)
Germany, early 16th Century

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