ALBRECHT DÜRER
20 Mary with the Guenon Monkey,
Nuremberg 1471 – 1528
ca. 1498
Engraving, 19.0 x 12.2 cm Bartsch 42; Dodgson 22; Meder 30 a (of l); Schoch-Mende-Scherbaum 20
Brilliant impression. An absolutely clean early impression that reproduces the entire tonal richness of this engraving. Clear and with a wealth of contrasts down to the densest hatching lines. Deep black, at times almost burry and excessively black, as characterized by Meder in particular for early impressions. Printed on a fine laid paper without watermark, as referenced with regard to the a variant. Cut right up to the plate mark or with an extremely fine margin around it. In an excellent state of preservation. Artistically as well as technically, Mary with the Guenon Monkey marks a turning point in Dürer’s approach to engraving. Produced shortly after the artist’s Italian journey, the work harmoniously integrates a traditional German setting with the world south of the Alps that was still a new experience for Dürer, in an intensive interplay of objects in space, the observation of nature, and the rendering of a variety of surfaces. Using a by now rigorously disciplined graphic system that exploits long, sinuous lines and crosshatching, Dürer is able to generate a convincing sense of figural volume while at the same time characterizing a variety of textures: Almost like a sculpture, the Madonna is seated on a grassy bench in front of an expansive riverine landscape which Dürer has borrowed from his own watercolor, painted from nature in 1496, of a cottage set on a pond in Nuremberg (British Museum, London). The effects of ref lection on the shimmering surface of the water are rendered masterfully, as is the softly cascading velvet of Mary’s sleeve, the weathered wood of the grassy bench, and the fur of the chained monkey – not merely an enlivening genre motif, but also an emblem of the evil that Jesus will is overcome. The songbird, toward which the infant Jesus playfully extends his sucking bag, or pacifier, may symbolize the liberated soul.
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