The Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, from: The Life of the Virgin

Details

ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
The Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, from: The Life of the Virgin
woodcut
1510
on laid paper, watermark Flower with Triangle (Meder 127)
a very good impression from the Latin text edition of 1511
printing a little dryly at centre
trimmed to or just outside the borderline
a few small and skilful repairs
generally in good condition
Block & Sheet 293 x 205 mm.

Provenance

Unidentified, initial W or M in a circle (not in Lugt).
William Esdaile (1758-1837), London (Lugt 2617, inscribed recto and verso).

Literature

Bartsch 94; Meder, Hollstein 206; Schoch Mende Scherbaum 184

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The composition of this print is closely related the central panel of the Heller Altarpiece, which was completed in 1509 and was later dispersed. The surviving panels are today at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main and the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe. Dürer seems to have developed the composition for the painting in a series of chiaroscuro drawings on colored paper heightened with white (W. 448-465), which also formed the stylistic basis for the woodcuts for the Life of the Virgin of 1510. Another preparatory drawing relating directly to this woodcut, executed in plain pen and ink, is at the Albertina in Vienna (W. 471).

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