Christ Taking Leave of His Mother, from The Fall and Salvation of Mankind Through the Life and Passion of Christ
ca. 1513
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 1/16 × 2 3/16 in. (7.8 × 5.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1920
Accession Number
20.11.22
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the early 16th, Albrecht Altdorfer, a pioneering artist of the German Renaissance and leader of the Danube School, profound emotional moments in his series *The Fall and Salvation of M Through the Life and Passion Christ*. This woodcut *Christ Taking Leave of His Mother*ca. 1513), depicts an intimate, apocryphal biblical scene Jesus bids farewell to the Mary before beginning his ministry. Rendered on a tiny sheet (just 3 1/16 × 2 3/16 in.), it exemplifies Altdorfer's mastery of miniature scale, blending tender human drama with his signature atmospheric landscapes in the background. As a wo...
About the Artist
Albrecht Altdorfer · 1475–1538
Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538) was a German painter, printmaker, and draftsman who stands as one of the founders of landscape painting as an independent genre. Born in Regensburg or nearby Altdorf, he learned art from his father Ulrich, a painter and miniaturist. Altdorfer spent most of his life in Regensburg, becoming a citizen in 1505 and later serving as the city's official architect and a m...