Artist
Albrecht DürerTitle
The Birth of the Virgin (The Life of the Virgin, 5)Production date
c. 1503Technique / Material
Woodcut on paperDimensions
Height: 30,5 cm; Width: 21,7 cmCreditline
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung, Leihgabe 1965 Freunde der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart e.V., Stiftung Max Kade Foundation, New YorkCC license
"It would not be possible, whether in invention, in the composition of the perspective views, in the buildings, in the costumes, or in the heads of old and young, to do better."
The verdict of Giorgio Vasari, the famous Italian artists' biographer. In this instance, he was writing about a leading northern European artist, who travelled across the Alps and visited Venice in the autumn of 1505: Albrecht Dürer.
Before his departure for Italy, Dürer had already published 17 of the 19 woodcuts he would later bring together for his cycle "Life of the Virgin". In a series of eventful scenes, the cycle depicts the life of Mary: from the hopes and expectations of her parents at her birth, her development and her betrothal to Joseph, via the Annunciation, the birth of Jesus, the flight to Egypt, all the way to her son's departure and Mary's own death and coronation.
Among Italian artists, the plates of the Marian cycle met with great interest, and reprints of the woodcuts were soon in circulation. Take a moment to examine Dürer's "Birth of the Virgin": In the foreground, a number of women have gathered to be present at the event that has just taken place in the background. Anne is lying in a large four-poster bed, exhausted from the rigours of childbirth. In the foreground on the right, a woman is bathing the new-born infant in a wooden tub. Towards the top of the print, the sky has opened up to reveal an angel swinging a thurible with incense.
Vasari had praised the invention, the perspective view and the faces full of character regardless of age – and those features are all in evidence here. Dürer`s pictorial invention exerted a formative influence on Venetian artists in general and on the slightly older Carpaccio in particular.
As you look at the other works from Dürer's "Life of the Virgin", you may like to listen to a piece of music by Josquin Desprez. As one of the most famous and imaginative composers of the Renaissance, Desprez was active at various courts in Italy and France. This is his motet "O bone et dulcis Domine Jesu" – "O good and sweet Lord Jesus".