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The Virgin crowned by two Angels Albrecht Dürer
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Curator’s description:
Description
The Virgin sits holding an apple, the infant Christ on her lap, in front of a fence of thin wooden stakes. Two angels hover above her head, holding a crown between them.
The print was first listed in the Rudimentary Series catalogues of 1872, where, as no. 66, it was placed in the second section of the third cabinet, which contained 'Greek and Mediæval design' - the latter in the form of a series of Dürers and Holbeins. This was one of three Dürer Virgins included in the "Abbeville" catalogue, which Ruskin claimed displayed 'the principal conditions of Flamboyant design in figures; angular and much divided drapery, violently-curled hair; interlaced ornamentation (note the sceptre, crowns, and wattled fence), and feverish intensity of detail everywhere' (no. 21 = XIX.272).
Writing about the print in 1878, Ruskin tempered praise with the assertion that it embodied several of Dürer's 'inessential and unpardonable faults', notably vulgarity and carelessness. Describing an enlargement of the Virgin's head to his students in "Ariadne Florentina", Ruskin called the Virgin 'a fat Dutch girl, with all the pleasantness left out', although the print 'as engraving, is as good as can be', displaying Dürer's consummate understanding of his tools and materials and the fluency with which he used them, creating in particular a 'decorative arrangement of lines' (§ 247 = XXII.378-9). In "The Eagle's Nest", he mentioned the enlargement again, as no. 117 in the Reference Series (although it was never catalogued as such), and desxcribed how Dürer's knowledge of anatomy meant that he could never draw a face beautifully, as he would always try to accommodate what he saw to what he knew of the structure of the skull beneath it (§ 155 = XXII.228).
This does not seem to be the copy of the print reproduced facing p. 250 of the "Works" edition of "Ariadne Florentina", and Cook and Wedderburn note (XXII.xliv) that the copy reproduced as pl. XXXV, f.p. 478, in their edition of "Ariadne Florentina" was in the British Museum.
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Details
- Artist/maker
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Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) (designer)
- Object type
- Material and technique
- engraving on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 148 x 101 mm (sheet)
- Inscription
- In the print, engraved, on a tablet bottom right: 1518 | AD [the 'AD' in Dürer's characteristic monogram]
On the verso, all in graphite (recent):
Top: B 39 H 38 | The Virgin crowned by | two Angels | "copy in reverse | According to Bartsch | copy by Jaques Binck
Below, centre: Rud. 66
Below, to the left: £7. 5.0
- Provenance
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Presented by John Ruskin to the Ruskin Drawing School (University of Oxford), 1875; transferred from the Ruskin Drawing School to the Ashmolean Museum, c.1949.
- No. of items
- 1
- Accession no.
- WA.RS.RUD.066
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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. 84
Meder, Josef, Dürer-Katalog, ein handbuch über Albrecht Dürers stiche, radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren zustände, ausgaben und wasserzeichen (Wien: Gilhofer & Ranschburg, 1932), no. 38
Bartsch, Adam von, Le Peintre Graveur, 21 vols (Vienna: J. von Degen, 1803-1821), cat. vol. VII, pp. 57-8, no. 39
Hollstein, F. W. H., German Engravings Etchings and Woodcuts, ca. 1400 - 1700 (Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1954-), cat. vol. VII, p. 33, no. 38
Bartsch, Adam von, The Illustrated Bartsch, founding editor Walter L. Strauss, general editor John T. Spike (New York: Abaris Books, 1978-), no. 1001.39
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. 66
Ruskin, John, Instructions in the Preliminary Exercises Arranged for the Lower Drawing-School (London: Smith, Elder, 1872), cat. Rudimentary no. 66
Ruskin, John, Instructions in the Preliminary Exercise Arranged For the Lower Drawing-School (London: Spottiswoode, 1873), cat. Rudimentary no. 66
Ruskin, John, ‘Rudimentary Series 1878’, 1878, Oxford, Oxford University Archives, cat. Rudimentary no. 66
Ruskin, John, ‘References to the Series of Paintings and Sketches, From Mr. Ruskin's Collection, Shown in Illustration of the Relations of Flamboyant Architecture to Contemporary and Subsequent Art’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 19, no. 21 = XIX.272
Ruskin, John, ‘Ariadne Florentina: Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving. Given Before the University of Oxford, in Michaelmas Term, 1872’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Words on John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 22
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. 66
Ruskin, John, ‘The Eagle's Nest: Ten Lectures on the Relation of Natural Science to Art, Given Before the University of Oxfored, in Lent Term, 1872’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 22
Location
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- Western Art Print Room
Position in Ruskin’s Collection
Ruskin's Catalogues
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Ruskin's Rudimentary series, 3rd ed. (1872)
R|66} Madonna crowned (line engraving). A. Dürer. -
Ruskin's Rudimentary series 4th ed. (1872)
R|66} Madonna crowned (line engraving). A. Dürer. -
Ruskin's Rudimentary series, 5th ed. (1873)
R|66} Madonna crowned (line engraving). A. Dürer. -
Ruskin's revision to the Rudimentary series (1878)
remains 66.A celebrated plate, in many respects fine, but R. placed here as showing the inessential and unpardonable faults of the master, viz, vulgarity in his ideal of womanhood, and carelessness about expression in comparison of mere complexity of detail. There is nothing divine or angelic in the countenances either of madonna or angel, and the entire merit of the work is in the arrangement of its knots or masses and the easy continuity of its engraved lines.
