![Madonna and Child [obverse]](http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ci/AL18g_TnB34KpkCF4nMG8eH7nrbF3ylOKmwX1FBCRNZFKPoUiLRgcEbNM5Q7FM43UvGZ3I4ggBdc)
Madonna and Child [obverse]
Albrecht Dürerc. 1496/1499
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Dürer was born in Nuremberg and received a typical medieval training from his goldsmith father and from the Nuremberg painter Michael Wolgemut. Yet he was one of the major transmitters of the ideas of the Italian Renaissance to artists in the North. This was the result of direct experience acquired on two trips to Italy, as well as of his own diligent study of ideal figural proportions and perspective.
Dürer traveled to Venice in 1494/1495 and 1505/1507. While there, he became well acquainted with Giovanni Bellini, whose influence is evident in the _Madonna and Child_. The athletic Christ Child, the stable pyramid of the Virgin's form, the strong, and almost sculptural modeling of the figures, and the contrast of clear blue and red setting off Mary's shape all recall Bellini's treatment of the same subject.
On the other hand, Mary's placement in the corner of a room with a window open on a distant view indicates Dürer's familiarity with Netherlandish devotional images. The minute treatment of the Alpine landscape and the careful delineation of all textures and surfaces equally remind one of Dürer's persistent fascination with the North's tradition of visual exactitude.
The _Madonna and Child_ probably was intended for private devotion. The diminutive coat–of–arms in the lower corners have been identified as those of the Hallery family (left) and Koberger (right), both prominent in Nuremberg. Further, it has been suggested that the painting was commissioned by Wolf III Haller who married Ursula Koberger in 1491.
More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication _German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries_, which is available as a free PDF <u>https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/german-painting-fifteenth-through-seventeenth-centuries.pdf</u>
- Title: Madonna and Child [obverse]
- Creator: Albrecht Dürer
- Date Created: c. 1496/1499
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 52.4 x 42.2 cm (20 5/8 x 16 5/8 in.) framed: 66.2 x 55.5 x 7.6 cm (26 1/16 x 21 7/8 x 3 in.)
- Provenance: Probably a member of the Haller family, Nuremberg.[1] Possibly Paul von Praun [d. 1616] and descendants, Nuremberg, until at least 1778.[2] Charles à Court Repington [d. 1925], Amington Hall, Warwickshire; sold to Mrs. Phyllis Loder, London.[3] (sale, Christie's, London, 29 April 1932, no. 51, as Bellini); (Vaz Dias.)[4] Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza [1875-1947], Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, by 1934. (Pinakos, Inc. [Rudolf Heinemann], New York); on consignment 1950 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased 23 October 1950 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1952 by exchange to NGA. [1] From the coat-of-arms at the lower left, there would seem to be little doubt that the Gallery's panel was first owned and probably executed for a member of the Haller family of Nuremberg; see Otto Titan von Hefner and Gustav Adelbert Seyler, _die Wappen des bayerischen Adels. J. Siebmacher's grosses Wappenbuch_. 34 vols. (Neustadt an der Aisch, 1971) 22: 38, pl. 36, and additional information in NGA manuscript for systematic catalogue number 5 on German painting, entry on _Madonna and Child_ by Dürer. The Hallers were one of Nuremberg's largest and most influential patrician families, but our inability to identify the coat-of-arms at the lower right renders it all but impossible to find a candidate. The direction of the Haller arms is reversed so that it may "respect" the arms of what is presumed to be the wife's family at the lower right; see Gustav A. Seyler, "die Orientirung der Wappen", _Geschichte der Heraldik. J. Siebmacher's grosses Wappenbuch_. vols. A-G (Neustadt an der Aisch, 1970) A: 454-487, and letter of 16 April 1988 from Walter Angst to John Hand in NGA curatorial file. Anzelewsky raised the possibility that the panel was painted for Wilhelm Haller (d. 1534) whose second marriage to Dorothea Landauer took place in 1497; see Fedja Anzelewsky, _Albrecht Dürer Das malerische Werk_. (Berlin, 1971), 142. On the other hand, Sally E. Mansfield suggested, in a report in the NGA curatorial file, Hieronymus II Haller (d. 1519) who married Catharina Wolf von Wolfstal in 1419. [2] Christophe Gottlieb von Murr, _Beschreibung der vornehmsten Merkwürdigkeiten in des H.R. Reichs freyen Stadt Nürnberg und auf der hohen Schule zu Altdorf_ (Nuremberg, 1778), 476. "Von einem unberkannten sehr alten Meister. N. 239 Lot eilet mit seinen Töchtern aus Sodom. Man siehet unter andern auch ein Marienbild angebracht. Auf Holz." Listed as belonging to the "Praunisches Museum." The suggestion, which remains unverified, that this refers to the Gallery's painting was first made by Erika Tietze, letter of 4 February 1953 to Fern Rusk Shapley, in curatorial files. In Murr's later catalogue of the collection, however, the painting is given to Joachim Patinir. See Christophe Theophile de Murr, _Description du Cabinet de Monsieur Paul de Praun a Nuremberg_ (Nuremberg, 1797), 31, "Joachim Patenier, 239. Lot et ses deux Filles sortans de Sodome. Les figures sont comme decoupées, sans justes ombres. Sur bois. Albret Durer reçut ce petit Tableau en 1521 à Anvers par le Sécretaire de cette Ville... haut 8 p. larg. 8 p." The Dimensions in _pouces_, approximately 8x8 inches, do not correspond to those of the Gallery's panel, and a verso is not described, suggesting that a different painting had been assigned the same catalogue number. The Praun collection was dispersed in sales of 1797 and 1802; see Th. Hampe, "Kunstfreunde im alten Nürnberg und ihre Sammlungen," _Festschrift des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg zur Feier seines 25 jähr. Bestehens_ (Nuremberg, 1903), 82-87. Colin Eisler, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian_ (Oxford, 1977), 14, listed Willibald Imhoff the Elder [d.1580] of Nuremberg as a possible owner. Although there are several images of the Madonna or of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah listed in the Imhoff inverntories, they are not, however, conjoined or described in enough detail to permit identification with the Gallery's picture. By the same token, it is not possible to verify the interesting suggestion in Eisler 1977, 16, n. 46, that the Gallery's panel might be the "Marienbild von Albrecht Dürer" belonging to both the Imhoff and Praun collections. See Joseph Heller, _Das Leben und die Werke Albrecht Dürer's_ (Bamberg, 1827) vol. 2, part 1, 78, no. 1 (Imhoff), 230-231, no. y (Praun). There is also some question as to whether the many works listed as by Dürer in the Imhoff collection were autograph or deliberate falsification; see Moriz Thausing, _Dürer, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Kunst_ (Leipzig, 1876), 141-144 (Engl. trans. _Albert Dürer, His Life and Works_. Fred A. Eaton Ed., 2 vols., London 1882, 1: 184-188). [3] This and the preceding are unverified, but are first cited in Max J. Friedländer, "Eine Unbekannte Dürer-Madonna." _Pantheon_ 14 (1934): 322, who states that Loder purchased the painting from à Court Repington, repeated in Rudolf Heinemann, _Stiftung Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz. I. Teil. Verzeichnis der Gemälde_. (Lugano-Castagnola, 1937), 47, no. 127, and accepted by later authors. For Charles à Court Repington see the article by J.E. Edmonds, _The Dictionary of National Biography_ (Oxford and London), Supplement 1922-1930, 717-718. That he dealt in pictures on occasion is stated in Mary Repington, _Thanks for the Memory_ (London, 1938), 223, 278. No information has come to light concerning Phyllis Loder. There is no justification for the assertation in Denys Sutton, "Robert Langton Douglas. Part IV," _Apollo_ CX, no. 209 (July, 1979): 205, that the picture was once owned by Robert Langton Douglas. [4] _Art prices Current_, 11, part A, A154, no. 2445; see also the hand-written annotation in the copy of the sales catalogue in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York, as cited by Eisler 1977, 14. A note in the NGA provenance card file suggests that the panel passed from Vaz Dias to the dealer Bottenwieser in Berlin, but it has not been possible to verify this. [5] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Commission book no. 4, no. CA 3689. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1344.
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: oil on panel
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