The Virgin with the Swaddled Child

Albrecht Durer, German, 1471 - 1528

The Virgin with the Swaddled Child

Intaglio

1520

Engraving

5 3/4 x 3 5/16 in. (14.6 x 8.4 cm)

2006.057.002

This is the last in a series of ten devotional images of the Virgin and Child that Durer engraved over a period of more than twenty years. This is the only one, however, that portrays a sleeping child. Depictions of the infant Jesus asleep in his mother's lap are prefigurations of his Passion. Just as the sleeping child will awake, so will Christ rise again from the dead after his Crucifixion. The swaddling clothes also prefigure the funeral shroud. In addition, the corporal, the altar cloth on which the Host symbolizing Christ's body was placed during the celebration of Holy Eucharist, was interpreted as a symbol of both swaddling and shroud.

Gift of the Patrons of Paper

Renaissance to Contemporary: Recent Acquisitions in Works on Paper, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 10 - May 27, 2007

© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.

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