Cleveland Museum of Art
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple
Albrecht DürerLinkedCulture matchlcp-91cf98b472c5
- Date
- c. 1504–1505
- Medium
- woodcut
- Culture
- Germany, early 16th Century
- Department
- Prints
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 136177
From LinkedCulture
Around 1504, Albrecht Dürer carved an entire Renaissance interior, complete with coffered ceilings and fluted columns, into a single woodcut no larger than a book page. In this scene, the infant Christ is presented at the temple, where Mary and Joseph press through a dense crowd gathered beneath a deep, receding archway. Part of Dürer's ambitious Life of the Virgin series, it showcases his mastery of architectural perspective, something nearly unmatched in northern European printmaking at the time. His monogram, carved into the base of the foreground column, was a deliberate mark of authorship.
Written by LinkedCulture for its video on this object. Machine-generated (claude-sonnet-4-6), not yet reviewed by a person. It is not part of the museum’s record.
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
These eight woodcuts (1959.99.8-15) progress from Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would bear the Son of God, to the events of her early motherhood and beyond. This included the joy of sharing her pregnancy with her cousin Elizabeth, Jesus’s birth, and the subsequent arrival of the magi. After Jesus’s circumcision and presentation at the temple the Holy Family fled to Egypt to avoid Herod and stayed there for several years. The seemingly out of place last scene shows a glimpse of their daily life in Egypt as Joseph continues his carpentry and Mary spins wool. The Holy Family is surrounded by angels and helpful putti and are blessed by God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove overhead.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Provenance
- ?–1959: (William H. Schab Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 1959–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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