
Public Domain
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Public Domain
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Public Domain
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.



Albrecht Dürer
German, 1471-1528
The Virgin and Child with a Monkey, ca. 1498
engraving
sheet: 7 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches (19.05 x 12.07 cm); image area: 7 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches (19.05 x 12.07 cm); mat: 19 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches (48.89 x 36.19 cm)
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Gift of Willis O. Chapin, 1891
1891:4.77
More Details
Class
Work Type
Information may change due to ongoing research.Glossary of Terms
Albrecht Dürer’s prints are characterized by nearly ethereal transitions from dark to light. From the fineness of the monkey’s wiry fur to the sumptuousness of the main figure’s clothing, Dürer achieved an astonishing amount of detail and depth and an array of textures in The Virgin and Child with a Monkey. Here, the Virgin Mary is seated in an expansive landscape divided by a wide river. The Christ Child is nestled on her lap, holding a bird tenderly in his hand. In her left hand is the Bible, and at her feet is a tethered monkey. His presence, however, is not merely for added visual interest. During the Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the monkey was a recognized symbol of the most basic of human instincts: lust, gluttony, and greed. The animal here, however, is docile and chained. This presentation suggests the power of the Virgin Mary’s virtue to tame humankind’s worst, and most sinful, qualities.
Label from Menagerie: Animals on View, March 11–June 4, 2017
Related Content
Other Works by This Artist
Peasant and Wife
,- The Prodigal son ,
Christ on the Mount of Olives
,Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand
,The Babylonian Whore
,- St. Eustace ,
The Crucifixion (from the Little Passion)
,Detail from the Triumphal Arch of Maximilian
,- Melencolia I ,
- St. Jerome in Penitence ,
- Melencolia I ,
No image available,
but we're working on itMartyrdom of Ten Thousand
,