The Death of the Virgin

c. 1390

Netherlandish 14th Century

Attributed to

Nineteen people gathered around a woman who lies on a bed are drawn with delicate, silvery-brown lines on light aqua-tinted, horizontally oriented paper. The woman on the bed lies with her eyes closed and her body wrapped in cloth that covers everything except her face and hands, which are crossed. Eleven men and women wearing robes sit across the bottom of the sheet turned away from us or toward each other. Many have delicate lines suggesting halos. In the top right quadrant of the drawing, a woman covers her face with her hands, and a man resting his chin in his hand wraps an arm around a young child, who holds a chalice or vessel. Five more people are gathered on the far side of the bed. One holds a small bucket out and another holds an open book and a staff. There is discoloration on the paper at the bottom center, and dark lines across and up the middle suggest that the sheet may have been folded at some point.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    silverpoint on blue-green prepared paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 29.1 x 40 cm (11 7/16 x 15 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1950.20.2

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Princes of Liechtenstein, Vienna (Lugt 4398); purchased 20 April 1948 through (Walter Felichenfeldt, Zurich) by Lessing J. Rosenwald, Jenkintown, PA;[1] gift to NGA in 1950.
[1] Rosenwald describes the acquisitions from Liechtenstein in Recollections of a Collector, 1976, p. 46-47.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1948

  • Seventy Master Drawings, Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1948-1949, no. 2.

1950

  • Masterpieces of Drawing: Diamond Jubilee Exhibition, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1950-1951, no. 5, repro.

  • Rosenwald Collection: An Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions, NGA, 1950, no. 15, repro.

1977

  • Paper in Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1977, no. 64.

1978

  • Master Drawings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art and Promised Gifts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978, p. 18.

1982

  • Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector, NGA, 1982, no. 46, repro.

2015

  • Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The British Museum, London, 2015, no. 2.

2017

  • Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen-Paris-Dijon, Art Around 1400, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2017, no. 8, repro.

Bibliography

1982

  • Fine, Ruth E. Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1982, no. 46.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 658, no. 1034, color repro.

1996

  • Enstice, Wayne and Melody Peters. Drawing: Space, Form, and Dimension. New Jersey, 1996: 33, fig. 1.23.

2005

  • Dückers, Rob, Pieter Roelofs. The Limbourg Brothers; Nijmegen Masters at the French Court, 1400-1416. Antwerp, 2005:345, no. 86

2016

  • National Gallery of Art. Highlights from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Washington, 2016: 39, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q64618170

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