Albrecht Dürer

Until this stunning little print D/uurer depicted the Virgin and Child in two different ways; standing on a crescent or seated in a landscape. In the present work he managed to combine the essential characteristics of both. He reduced the landscape to almost nothing, just a wall and a few blades of grass, and made the figure of the Virgin fill almost the entire picture plane. He chose the most intimate scene, that of the Madonna nursing the child, set it in darkness and finally illuminated it with intense highlights and adorned both the Virgin and Child with brightly shining halos. The result is an image that is at once monumental and intimate, majestic and humble, universal and human.