Christ Taking Leave of His Mother (Schr. 639)
15th century
Medium
Woodcut, hand-colored
Dimensions
sheet: 6 3/4 x 4 13/16 in. (17.1 x 12.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of James Clark McGuire, 1930
Accession Number
31.54.140
Tags
Art Historical Context
This poignant 15th-century German woodcut, titled *Christ Taking Leave of His Mother* (Schr. 639), captures a tender biblical moment: Jesus bidding farewell to the Virgin Mary before embarking on his ministry. Created anonymously by a skilled artisan, the image depicts Christ and Mary amid a domestic scene with houses, men, and women, emphasizing human emotion and familial bonds. Measuring just 6 3/4 x 4 13/16 inches, its intimate scale made it ideal for personal devotion. Woodcuts like this one were revolutionary in late medieval Northern Europe, enabling affordable reproduction of religious...