Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Madonna by the Wall

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Albrecht Dürer
1471-1528

Madonna by the Wall

1514
Engraving on paper.
5 3/4 x 3 15/16 inches (146 X 101 mm)
Gift of Mrs. Livio Borghese in honor of Charles E. Pierce, Jr.
2007.95
Notes
Executed the same year as his famous compositions of Melancholia I and St. Jerome in his Study, this engraving of the Virgin with the Christ Child, seated by a wall leading back to a city view in the distance, is one of Dürer's most monumental representations of this theme. The restless line and dynamic action that characterize his earlier work on this subject are harnessed into a sculptural stillness that conveys a regal but humble quality. The figure of the Virgin is presented as fully three dimensional; all attention is focused on the depiction of her drapery and the plasticity of her form. The venerable art historian Erwin Panofsky considered this the most fully satisfying of Dürer's engraved Madonnas.
Inscriptions/Markings
Monogrammed and dated on a tablet on the wall at right.
Provenance

Helen P. Burtis; her estate sale, Sotheby's, New York, 10 May 1973, Lot 65; Mrs. Livio Borghese, New York.

Associated names
Burtis, Helen P., former owner.
Borghese, Livio, Mrs., former owner.
Bibliography

F.W.H. Hollstein , German Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts, ca. 1400-1700. 28 vols. Amsterdam, 1954-, vol. 7, p. 31, no. 36, repr.<br>Dürer in America: His Graphic Work, ed. C. Talbot. Washington, DC, 1971, p. 148-49, no. 63. repr.<br>W. L. Strauss, ed. The Intaglio Prints of Albrecht Dürer: Engravings, Etchings, and Drypoints. New York, 1976, p. 216, repr.

Classification
Department
Century prints
School