Art Institute of Chicago
The Madonna by the Fountain
Master M.Z.LinkedCulture matchlcp-b338476c5639
- Date
- 1501
- Medium
- Engraving on ivory laid paper
- Culture
- Germany
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 3692
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
The artist known as Master M. Z. produced a number of idiosyncratic devotional and secular engraved subjects in Northern Germany around the beginning of the 16th century. This massively sculptural Madonna fills a dainty cup for the Christ Child from a fountain spout with the features of a lion or possibly a monkey. The composition closely recalls Albrecht Dürer’s well-known Madonna with the Monkey . While Dürer’s Christ Child has been distracted by a bird, here the large, naked Christ tugs at the tunic of the tender, if slightly amused Virgin, as if to suggest breast milk would be preferable to water.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300041273
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