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The Glorification of the Virgin Albrecht Dürer
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Curator’s description:
Description
The Virgin sits in the centre, with the infant Christ standing on her knee as they both read the book held by an angel to the right; another angel plays a harp. To the left kneels Saint Catherine of Alexandria, identified by the fragment of her wheel on the ledge which runs along the front of the picture. More saints stand behind the Virgin, from left to right: Saint Jerome, wearing his cardinal's hat, his lion just visible behind the column on the left; Saint Paul, holding his sword; a bishop, perhaps Saint Augustine, just behind him; Saint Anthony Abbot, with his cross-tipped staff from which hangs a bell; Saint John the Baptist, holding the lamb and banner of the Resurrection; and Joseph, holding his hat before him. The wings of another angel can be seen behind the Virgin's head. The figures are placed in a grand bedroom (the curtained bed on the left), with a figure of Moses holding the tablets of the law in the arch at the top. Putti play with shields and other toys on the ledge in front of the main figures. The print is the last (no. 20) of Dürer's series of woodcuts of "The Life of the Virgin", on which he was working from 1502 until 1511.
Ruskin first catalogued this print in 1872, when it appeared as "Madonna and Saint Catherine", no. 72 in the Rudimentary Series catalogues, one of the series of Dürers in the second section of the third cabinet in the Rudimentary Series (devoted to 'Greek and Mediæval design'). In his 1878 rearrangement of the series, Ruskin moved the print to no. 69. Although recorded by Cook and Wedderburn and Hewison, the print could not be found in 2003, and the example reproduced here is a surrogate from the Ashmolean's Douce Collection; it is state 'a' before the series was published in book form (the state of Ruskin's print is impossible to identify).
Ruskin's views on the print were mixed: in his 1878 notes on the rearranged Rudimentary Series (no. 69), he praised the fineness of Dürer's work in Saint Anthony's head and Saint Catherine's hair and jewellery; but he deplored the architecture and the 'monstrous', 'lanky pillars'.
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Details
- Artist/maker
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Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) (block cutter)
- Object type
- Material and technique
- woodcut on laid paper
- Dimensions
- surrogate: 296 x 213 mm (block)
- Associated people
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Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) (publisher)
- Inscription
- In the print, in woodcut, bottom centre, Dürer's characteristic monogram
- Provenance
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Presented by John Ruskin to the Ruskin Drawing School (University of Oxford), 1875; not recorded in the Drawing School after 1906.
- No. of items
- 1
- Accession no.
- RUD.072
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Subject terms allocated by curators:
Subjects
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References in which this object is cited include:
References
Schoch, Rainer, Mende, Matthias, and Scherbaum, Anna, Albrecht Dürer: das druckgraphische Werk, 3 (Munich/London/New York: Prestel, 2001-2004), no. 185
Meder, Josef, Dürer-Katalog, ein handbuch über Albrecht Dürers stiche, radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren zustände, ausgaben und wasserzeichen (Wien: Gilhofer & Ranschburg, 1932), no. 207
Bartsch, Adam von, Le Peintre Graveur, 21 vols (Vienna: J. von Degen, 1803-1821), cat. vol. VII, p. 133, no. 95
Ruskin, John, The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogue of the Rudimentary Series, in the Arrangement of 1873, ed. Robert Hewison (London: Lion and Unicorn Press, 1984), cat. Rudimentary no. 72, RUD.072
Hollstein, F. W. H., German Engravings Etchings and Woodcuts, ca. 1400 - 1700 (Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1954-), cat. vol. VII, p. 163, no. 207
Bartsch, Adam von, The Illustrated Bartsch, founding editor Walter L. Strauss, general editor John T. Spike (New York: Abaris Books, 1978-), no. 1001.295
Ruskin, John, Instructions in Practice of Elementary Drawing, Arranged with Reference to the First Series of Examples in the Drawings Schools of the University of Oxford (n.p., [1872]), cat. Rudimentary no. 72
Ruskin, John, Instructions in the Preliminary Exercises Arranged for the Lower Drawing-School (London: Smith, Elder, 1872), cat. Rudimentary no. 72
Ruskin, John, Instructions in the Preliminary Exercise Arranged For the Lower Drawing-School (London: Spottiswoode, 1873), cat. Rudimentary no. 72
Ruskin, John, ‘Rudimentary Series 1878’, 1878, Oxford, Oxford University Archives, cat. Rudimentary no. 69
Ruskin, John, ‘The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogues, Notes and Instructions’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 21, cat. Rudimentary no. 72
Location
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- not found
Position in Ruskin’s Collection
Ruskin's Catalogues
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Ruskin's Rudimentary series, 3rd ed. (1872)
R|72} Madonna and St. Catharine (woodcut). A. Dürer. -
Ruskin's Rudimentary series 4th ed. (1872)
R|72} Madonna and St. Catharine (woodcut). A. Dürer. -
Ruskin's Rudimentary series, 5th ed. (1873)
R|72} Madonna and St. Catharine (woodcut). A. Dürer. -
Ruskin's revision to the Rudimentary series (1878)
Now 72 69.One of the most interesting pieces in the Life of the Virgin, exquisitely decorative and complex. Few pieces of the master’s work are finer than the old man’s head with the flame-like beard, above the Saint Catherine; or than the rich crown, tresses and necklace of Saint Catherine herself. In what degree the dotted or jagged textures of the architecture are necessary to the pleasantness of the whole I cannot say; but I am quite sure that the composition of the whole is disagreeable, and the lanky pillars monstrous.
