Live Auction 20450Old Master and British Works on Paper: Drawings, Watercolours and Prints 1500-1900
ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
Lot 147 PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT FAMILY COLLECTION

ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)

Christ taking Leave from His Mother, from: The Life of the Virgin

Closed5 July 2022

Price Realised

GBP 15,120

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ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
Christ taking Leave from His Mother, from: The Life of the Virgin
woodcut, circa 1504, on laid paper, watermark High Crown (Meder 20), a brilliant, early proof impression, Meder a, before the Latin text edition of 1511, printing very sharply and evenly, with thread margins below and partially above, trimmed on or to the borderline at the sides, in very good condition
Block 296 x 210 mm.
Sheet 297 x 211 mm.

Franz von Hagens (1817-1899), Dresden (Lugt 1052a); presumably his sale, C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, 2-3 May 1927.
Felix Somary (1881-1956), Vienna, Zurich, Washington, D.C. (Lugt 4384); then by descent.
Private Collection, Germany; presumably acquired from the descendants of the above.
Christie's, London, Genius of the German Renaissance - A Collection of Prints by Albrecht Dürer, 4 December 2007, lot 45.
A Family Collection, USA; acquired at the above sale.

Specialist note

The woodcut of Christ taking Leave from His Mother, a moment in the Life of the Virgin that is described neither in the Gospels nor the Apocrypha, is one of the more overt references to the Passion of Christ in the series. The group of figures comprising the Virgin, Martha and Mary Magdalene is very much reminiscent of a Lamentation. However Dürer has refrained from depicting any actual scenes from the Passion within the Life of the Virgin, thereby breaking with tradition, which would have seen the inclusion of the Betrayal, the Flagellation, the Crucifixion and the Death of Christ as four of the Seven Sorrows of Mary.