Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • Collection
  • Collection Research
  • Past Exhibitions
  • Watch / Listen / Read

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum
Previous image 1 2 3 / 3 Next image

Albrecht Dürer

Madonna with the Pear

Maker

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), printmaker

Title

Madonna with the Pear

Year

1511

Medium

  • engraving,
  • trimmed to platemark

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • engraving,
  • trimmed to platemark

Materials

engraving

Supports

  • Light weight laid paper

Dimensions

Plate: 15.7 x 10.8 cm (6 3/16 x 4 1/4 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Lettered within image, LL: "AD" and UC: "1511"

Identification

State

only state

Standard Reference Number

Meder 33 (a)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth

Object Number

32.184

Type

  • Prints

Publications

  • Books

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650

Renaissance engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy that are composed entirely of lines. Artists began using this intaglio process in Europe as early as 1430. This captivating catalogue focuses on the height of the medium, from 1480 to 1650, when engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to engraving technique as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks in other media. The Brilliant Line follows these visual transformations and offers new insight into the special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers. The three essays discuss how engraving’s restrictive materials and the physical process of engraving informed its visual language; the context for the spread of particular engraving styles throughout Europe; and the interests, knowledge, and skills that Renaissance viewers applied when viewing and comparing engravings by style or school.

Exhibition History

The Brilliant Line
Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650
Sep 18, 2009 – Jan 03, 2010

Label copy

Dürer’s Madonna with the Pear exhibits his mastery of the precise and graphic qualities of engraving. His deeply cut lines, ordered space, and sharp contrasts result in an active surface that delights the eye with variety.

Drawing the Line
Mar 30, 2001 – Jun 10, 2001

Label copy

Viewers today continue to marvel at Albrecht Dürer's unsurpassed printmaking skills. It is difficult to control an engraved line, as it is created by gouging into a metal plate with a v-shaped tool, called a burin, which must be pushed through and across the surface. Once the plate is inked and wiped, it is printed under great pressure, forcing the ink from the engraved lines of the plate onto the paper. The engraved line is typically sharp and crisp.

In this image, Dürer fills the sheet with fine, tightly-spaced lines consistent in their width and strength. The surface seems woven together in patterns of undulating parallel and cross-hatched, broken and unbroken marks. From a distance the lines read as tone; close up one can see how they curve to give volume to the figures and trees, how they describe surfaces, and how ornamental they are in and of themselves.

Helen M. Danforth
A Tribute
Jun 21, 1985 – Sep 08, 1985
German Renaissance Graphics from the Museum's Collection
Nov 28, 1961 – Jan 07, 1962
Engravings of the 15th and 16th Centuries
Nov 10, 1948 – Feb 04, 1949

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), printmaker
Madonna with the Pear, 1511
Engraving, trimmed to platemark
Plate: 15.7 x 10.8 cm (6 3/16 x 4 1/4 inches)
Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth 32.184

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Main Navigation

  • Visit

    • Hours & Admission
    • Accessibility & Amenities
    • Tours & Group Visits
    • Visitor Guidelines
  • Art & Design

    • Collection Research
    • Collection
    • Past Exhibitions
  • Join / Give

    • Become a Member
    • Give
  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Events
  • Watch / Listen / Read

    • The Latest
    • Publications
    • Articles
    • Audio & Video

Footer Secondary Navigation

  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use
Tickets
Homepage
Go to the risd.edu homepage. This link will open in a new window.