The Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin

Dürer depicted the scene of the Virgin’s death (1959.99.18) as an intimate one, with the apostles keeping vigil around her deathbed. Three days later they witnessed Mary’s bodily assumption into paradise where she was crowned the Queen of Heaven (1959.99.19). The final print (1959.99.20), which some believe was conceived independently from the series because it falls outside of the typical narrative, shows the Virgin in a domestic setting surrounded by several saints, angels, and putti that celebrate her life-an especially fitting way to end the series.

A vertically oriented woodcut in dense black-inked fine lines depicts the Virgin Mary, a woman with light skin tone, being crowned by Christ and God the Father. Above her, a white dove flies within radiant beams. Below a divide of clouds, twelve men with light skin tones surround an empty stone tomb, looking upward or kneeling with hands pressed together. Clusters of angels fill the upper corners of the composition.

The Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin

1510

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)

Germany, early 16th Century

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