Cleveland Museum of Art

The Virgin and Child on a Grassy Bench

Albrecht Dürer

Date

1503

Medium

engraving

Culture

Germany, early 16th Century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This simple and intimate scene of the Virgin nursing the Christ Child is among Dürer’s most tender depictions of the subject. With affectionate devotion the Virgin cradles the infant in a warm embrace, providing protection and essential nourishment. The gentle play of hands at the center of the composition adds to the naturalism of the scene and captures the universal bond between a mother and her child. The dead tree and the goldfinch resting on the trellis behind them allude to Jesus’s inevitable Passion, making this private moment all the more meaningful.

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