National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Madonna and Child [obverse]
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

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 left corner identifies the patron as a member of the wealthy Nuremberg mercantile family of Haller von Hallerstein.

Inscription

lower left coat-of-arms: (Gules, a chapé emanating from the dexter flank argent, charged with a dexter gyron sable); crest: (out of a wreath of the liveries the torso of an armless Moorish woman proper, habited gules, crined and braided sable, earringed Or, wearing a "flying head band" (fliegende Binde) twisted gules and argent); mantling: (gules, lined argent); lower right coat-of-arms: (rendered heraldically indescribable by later additions)

Marks and Labels

null

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] on consignment to M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1950);[5] purchased 1950 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; 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. stockbook.

Exhibition History

1986
Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg 1300-1550, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 1986, no. 109 (shown only in New York).
2007
Dürer e l'Italia, Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2007, no. IV.20, repro.
2007
Durero y Cranach: Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimento, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2007-2008, no. 31, repro.
2012
The Early Dürer, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 2012, no. 53, repro.

Bibliography

1934
Buchner, Ernst. "Die Sieben Schmerzen Mariä: eine Tafel aus der Werkstatt des Jungen Dürer." Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst N.F. 11 (1934): 262, 265, 268-270, fig. 14.
1934
Friedländer, Max J. "Eine Unbekannte Dürer-Madonna." Pantheon 14 (1934): 321-324, repro.
1935
Deusch, Werner R. Deutsche Malerei des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts: die Malerei der Dürerzeit. Berlin, 1935: 26, pl. 4, 5.
1935
Waetzoldt, Wilhelm. Dürer und seine Zeit. Vienna, 1935: 210, 331. (English edition, New York, 1950: 141, 227.)
1936
Pilz, Kurt. "Der Totenschild in Nürnberg und seine deutschen Vorstufen: das 14.-15. Jahrhundert." Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums 49 (1936-1939): 72.
1937
Heinemann, Rudolf. Stiftung Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz. 3 vols. Lugano-Castagnola, 1937: 1:47, no. 127, 2:color pl. 30.
1937
Tietze, Hans and Erika Tietze-Conrat. Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke Albrecht Dürers. 3 vols. Basel and Leipzig, 1937: 2:15, no. 130a, repro. 173.
1943
Panofsky, Erwin. Albrecht Dürer. 2 vols. Princeton, 1943: 1:42, 2:10, no. 25.
1949
"Die Sammlung Thyssen der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich." Die Weltkunst 19 (1 September 1949): 8.
1950
Waetzoldt, Wilhelm. Dürer and His Times. New York, 1950: 141, 227.
1951
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 190-192, no. 84, repro.
1951
Winkler, Friedrich. "Hans Wechtlins 'Schöne Maria'." Berliner Museen N.F. 1 (1951): 9, 11, fig. 2.
1952
Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces. Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News Annual (1952): 111-112, repro. 106.
1952
Walker, John. "Your National Gallery of Art After 10 Years." National Geographic Magazine 101 no. 1 (January 1952): 74.
1954
Tietze, Hans. Treasures of the Great National Galleries. New York, 1954: 117.
1956
Shapley, Fern Rusk. National Gallery of Art. Portfolio Number 5: Masterpieces from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Washington, 1956: no. 5, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 30
1957
Winkler, Friedrich. Albrecht Dürer--Leben und Werk. Berlin, 1957: 77-78, 138, fig. 37.
1960
Broadley Hugh T. German Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 9 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 4, 20-21, color repro.
1961
Longhi, Roberto. "Una Madonna del Dürer a Bagnacavallo." Paragone 139 (1961): 5-7.
1961
Seymour, Charles. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 80, 81, 83, 210, color fig. 73.
1962
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Treasures from the National Gallery of Art, New York, 1962: 70.
1962
Lüdecke, Heinz. "Dürer und Italien." In Dezennium 1: Zehn Jahre VEB Verlag der Kunst. Dresden, 1962: 292-293, repro.
1962
Neugass, Fritz. "Die Auflösung der Sammlung Kress." Die Weltkunst 32 (1 January, 1962): 4.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 116, repro. 117.
1964
Lüdecke, Heinz. "Albrecht Dürer und Italien." Bildende Kunst no. 2 (1964): 75, 77, repro.
1965
Grote, Ludwig. Dürer: Biographical and Critical Study. Translated by Helga Harrison. Geneva, 1965: 49, 51, repro. 50.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 45
1966
Benesch, Otto. German Painting. From Dürer to Holbein, transl. H.S.B. Harrison. Geneva, 1966: 19-20, repro. 18.
1966
Cairns, Huntington and John Walker, ed. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:110-111, color repro.
1966
Musper, Heinrich Theodor. Albrecht Dürer. Translated by Robert Eric Wolf. New York, [1966]: 24.
1968
Gandolf, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 13, 102, 103, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture: Illustrations (Companion to the Summary Catalogue, 1965). Washington, 1968: 38, no. 1099, repro.
1968
Zampa, Giorgio and Angela Ottino della Chiesa, L'opera completa di Dürer. Milan, 1968: 95, no. 50a, pl. 9.
1971
Anzelewsky, Fedja. Albrecht Dürer. Das Malerische Werk. Berlin, 1971: 28-29, 71, 90, 93, 140-142, no. 43, fig. 20, pls. 39, 41-44. (Rev. ed. 1991: 27, 71, 91, 142, no. 43, color pl. 40-41, 45-47.)
1971
Hofmann, Walter Jürgen. Über Dürers Farbe. Nürnberg, 1971: 43 nt. 105, 87.
1971
Lanckoronska, Maria Gräfin. Neue Neithart-Studien. Neithart bei Dürer, zur Dokumentation und zum neu entdeckten Werk von Matthäus Gotthart Neithart. Baden-Baden, 1971: 55-60, figs. 28-29.
1971
Mende, Matthias. "1471-Albrecht Dürer-1971." The Connoisseur 176 (1971): 165.
1972
Lüdecke, Heinz. Albrecht Dürer. New York, 1972: 14, fig. 2.
1973
Oehler, Lisa. "Das Dürermonogramm auf Werken der Dürerschule." Städel-Jahrbuch N.F. 4 (1973): 72, fig. 63.
1974
Stechow, Wolfgang. "Recent Dürer Studies." The Art Bulletin 56, no. 2 (June 1974): 260.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue (National Gallery of Art). Washington, 1975: 116-117, no. 1099, repro.
1975
Paltrinieri, Marisa and Franco De Poli. I Geni dell'arte: Dürer. Milan, 1975: 34, 63, 93, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 148-149, no. 160, repro.
1976
Mende, Matthias. Albrecht Dürer: Das Frühwerk bis 1500. Herrsching, 1976: 68-69, fig. 30.
1976
Strieder, Peter. Dürer. Milan, 1976: 40-41, 180, no. 11, repros.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 12-16, figs. 11-14, color repro.
1977
Pope-Hennessy, John. "Completing the Account." Review of Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, London 1977. Times Literary Supplement no. 3927 (17 June 1977).
1979
Ruggeri, Ugo. Dürer. Bologna, 1979: 22-23, no. 4, color repro.
1979
Westrum, Geerd. Altdeutsche Malerei. Munich, 1979: 84-86, repro.
1980
Anzelewsky, Fedja. Dürer--vie et oeuvre. Translated by Monique Fuchs. Fribourg, 1980: 74, 76, 78, 86, 87, color fig. 70.
1982
Abrams, Richard I. and Warner A. Hutchinson. An Illustrated Life of Jesus, From the National Gallery of Art Collection. Nashville, 1982: 40-41, color repro.
1982
Anzelewsky, Fedja. Dürer. His Art and Life. Translated by Heide Grieve. London, 1982: 70, 82, fig. 70-71.
1982
Strieder, Peter. Albrecht Dürer. Paintings. Prints. Drawings. Translated from German by Nancy M. Gordon and Walter L. Strauss. New York, 1982: 318-319, fig. 418.
1983
Wolff, Martha. German Art of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: unpaginated, repro.
1984
Sgarbi, Vittorio. Fondazione Magnani-Rocca. Capolavori della Pittura Antica. Milan, 1984: 74.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 148-149, no. 154, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 141, repro.
1990
Dülberg, Angelica. Privatportäts. Geschichte und Ikonologie einer Gattung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1990 : 297, no. 341, figs. 325-326.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 187, color repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 60-1, repro.
1993
Ezendam, Yolanda. Dürer. Translated by Mauro Liloni. Milan, 1993: fig. 19.
1993
Hand, John Oliver, with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1993: 51-60, color repros. 53-54.
1994
Kamekura, Yusaku and Kijima, Shunsuke. Jozo ["Portraits of Women"]. Tokyo, 1994: 187, repro.
1995
Löcher, Kurt. Review of German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, by John Oliver Hand with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. Kunstchronik 43 no. 1 (January 1995): 15.
1999
Aikema, Bernard and Beverly Louise Brown. "Venice: Where North Meets South." In Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer and Titian. Exh. cat. Palazzo Grassi, 1999. Venice, 1999: 22, 24, color repro.
1999
Dunkerton, Jill. "North and South: Painting Techniques in Venice." In Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer and Titian. Exh. cat. Palazzo Grassi, 1999. Venice, 1999: 101.
2001
Mende, Matthias. "Dürer, Albrecht." In Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Munich and Leipzig, 1992-[unfinished] [vols.] Munich and Leipzig, 2001: 30:301.
2003
Schmid, Wolfgang. Dürer als Unternehmer: Kunst, Humanismus und Ökonomie in Nürnberg um 1500. Trier, 2003: 100-101, fig. 9.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 142-143, no. 111, color repro.
2009
Gariff, David, Eric Denker, and Dennis P. Weller. The World's Most Influential Painters and the Artists They Inspired. Hauppauge, NY, 2009: 35, color repro.
2010
Wolf, Norbert. Dürer. Munich, 2010: 238, no. 14, repro.
2012
Sauerländer, Willibald. “Dürer and Renoir.” New York Review of Books 59, no. 13 (August 16, 2012): 54.

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