The Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, from: The Life of the Virgin (B. 94; M., Holl. 206; S.M.S. 184)

Details

Albrecht Dürer
The Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, from: The Life of the Virgin (B. 94; M., Holl. 206; S.M.S. 184)
woodcut, 1510, watermark Bull's Head with Cross (M. 66), a fine proof impression before the text edition of 1511, printing very evenly and with great contrast, with thread margins, trimmed to the borderline in places, a few small unobtrusive ink stains in the lower left forground, in the upper sky and on Christ's chest, otherwise in very good condition
B., S. 3½ x 8 1/8 in. (89 x 206 mm.)

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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 in Frankfurt and 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 formed also 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 in the Albertina (W. 471).

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