The Death of the Virgin
c. 1470
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet, trimmed to platemark: 25.9 × 17 cm (10 1/4 × 6 3/4 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
29317
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In this touching interpretation of the death of Jesus’s mother Mary, Martin Schongauer displays a painter’s sense of light and shadows. He outlines the figures and fabric folds with a continuous line, implying volume and depth through fine hatching, following the contours of his forms. Schongauer was the first graphic artist from Germany originally trained as painter. When he decided to make engravings, a logical choice given that his father was a goldsmith, Schongauer was not constrained by tr...
About the Artist
Martin Schongauer · 1435–1491
Martin Schongauer, born around 1450–1453 in Colmar, Alsace, emerged from a family of skilled artisans. The third of four or five sons of goldsmith Caspar Schongauer, who had relocated from Augsburg to Colmar around 1440, Martin was immersed in the goldsmith's trade from youth, likely receiving his initial training in his father's workshop—a common path for early engravers. He further honed his ski...