DÜRER, Albrecht
(b. 1471, Nürnberg, d. 1528, Nürnberg)

The Virgin Mary in Prayer

1518
Oil on linden panel, 53 x 43 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

This painting depicts a monumental figure in a tightly cropped space, broad areas of bold colour, and highly refined enamel like treatment of the skin surfaces.

Wilhem von Bode acquired the panel in Venice in 1894 in an auction of the Morosini-Gatterburg collection, and then donated it to the Berlin art gallery. The Virgin Mary in Prayer was part of a diptych whose matching pair was probably a representation of an Ecce Homo.