Artwork Page for The Virgin on a Crescent

Details / Information for The Virgin on a Crescent

Series Title: The Life of the Virgin

The Virgin on a Crescent

c. 1510–11

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)
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Culture
Germany, early 16th Century
Medium
woodcut
Credit Line
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1959.99.1
Catalogue raisonné
Meder 188
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

The frontispiece of the series is a modification of the devotional imagery Dürer used in his depictions of the Virgin and Child standing in a crescent moon. Here, he also incorporated the themes of the nursing Madonna and the Madonna of Humility, often shown seated. In doing so, Dürer fused the Virgin’s regal, motherly, and humble natures into one striking image.
A vertically oriented woodcut in dense black-inked fine lines depicts the Virgin Mary seated on a large crescent moon, nursing the nude baby Christ. Both have light skin tones. Mary, with wavy hair, wears voluminous, draped robes. Her head is crowned with stars, while fine lines radiate outward in a celestial sunburst. Tasseled cushions rest at the crescent tips, and the figures float above light clouds and a flat, horizontally lined horizon.

The Virgin on a Crescent

c. 1510–11

Albrecht Dürer

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

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