"Mary's Walk in the Temple: Original Engraving from 1600"

(1471 Nuremberg – 1528 also in the same place) "The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple." Original title of the woodcut/printed on paper, mounted on Japanese paper, circa 1600. Signed with a monogram on the print. Sheet 6 (of 20) from the series "The Life of the Virgin" by Dürer. Condition g (according to Meder, edition without text) with watermark, shield with diagonal stripe (M. WZ 246). Meder catalogue 193 g (von h), Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 171. Trimmed to the border. Sheet 30.3 cm x 21.3 cm. Framed.

According to the story from the apocryphal Gospel of James, the three-year-old Mary is brought to the temple by her parents Joachim and Anna, so they may fulfill their vow and entrust her to the care of the temple priests, under whose supervision she is to pray and study in the coming years. Dürer depicts Mary—noticeably older than three years old—at the center of the scene, as she separates from the astonished crowd and resolutely, with disheveled hair and without looking back, ascends the nine steps of the temple staircase.

See literature: R. Schoch, M. Mende, and A. Scherbaum: Albrecht Dürer – The Printed Work, Vol. 2: Woodcuts and Woodcut Series, pp. 238 ff., Prestel Publishing, Munich 2002.

Woodcut on paper, mounted on Japanese paper, circa 1600. Signed with initials on the print. Condition g with watermark, shield with diagonal stripe (Meder 246). Trimmed to the border.