Christ Taking Leave from his Mother, from "The Small Passion"
ca. 1508
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
sheet: 4 15/16 x 3 13/16 in. (12.6 x 9.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The George Khuner Collection, Gift of Mrs. George Khuner, 1975
Accession Number
1975.653.29
Tags
Art Historical Context
In Albrecht Dürer's *Christ Taking Leave from his Mother*, from the series *The Small Passion* (. 1508), we witness a tender moment from Christ's life: the young Jesus bidding farewell to the Virgin Mary before beginning his ministry. This intimate woodcut, measuring just under 5 by 4 inches, captures the emotional exchange with Dürer's signature precision—Mary's sorrowful gaze and Christ's gentle resolve rendered in delicate lines that evoke profound humanity. As a pinnacle of Northern Renaissance printmaking, Dürer the humble woodcut medium to fine art through his masterful use of cross-hat...
About the Artist
Albrecht Dürer · 1471–1528
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) stands as the preeminent figure of the Northern Renaissance and arguably the most influential artist in the history of printmaking. Born in Nuremberg on May 21, 1471, and dying in the same city on April 6, 1528, Dürer revolutionized the status of the artist in Northern Europe, transforming printmaking from a commercial craft into an independent fine art and establishing ...