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

Life of the Virgin: 19. The Virgin Worshipped by Angels and Saints

c. 1500
Woodcut
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich

The saints represented are St Joseph, St John the Baptist, St Anthony, St Jerome, St Paul and St. Catherine.

To place this print at the end of the whole book, after the later prints of 1510, does away with the unity of the subject matter. There is much to be said for the theory that at some time it was thought of as a frontispiece. There are characteristic signs of early work in the crowded and confused composition with the absolutely broken up background. This cut may be regarded as the first cut of the Life of the Virgin, on which Dürer worked.