Albrecht Dürer

The Virgin with Child with the Monkey is a marvel of mimesis. Everything - the monkey, the wooden planks, the plants, the Virgin's body under her dress, the reflections in the water, the house in the background, the wind in the willows and the clouds - is described with the utmost realism. The extent to which Dürer used his own studies from nature for the composition of his prints is particularly apparent in this engraving. The little island with the house and the willows, the darkening sky and even the tuft of grass on the left are taken directly from a watercolour he painted around 1496, probably in situ, somewhere outside Nuremberg (British Museum; W. 115).