Art Institute of Chicago

The Holy Family with Three Hares

Albrecht Dürer

Date

c. 1496

Medium

Woodcut in black on off-white laid paper

Culture

Germany

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Albrecht Dürer used his early large-scale woodcuts to show the unprecedented delicacy of line that he could coax from a solid wooden block. This charming outdoor scene of the Virgin, Joseph, and the Christ Child is brimming with symbolism—from the Virgin’s miraculous fertility, as implied by the three playful hares in the lower margin, to the coral necklace around Christ’s neck, which, in its bloodlike beads, both protected him from the plague and presaged his death on the cross.

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