Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer’s earliest engravings already reveal his organized, graphic approach to engraving, characterized by refined transitions from dark to light that create unprecedented three-dimensionality. This engraving is noteworthy for its astonishing array of textures, from the monkey’s hair to the Virgin Mary’s velvet sleeve to the atmospheric sky, all achieved with extremely thin, long lines laid in organized sections.

The Virgin is shown with the Christ Child on her lap, next to a chained monkey within an expansive river landscape. The monkey is a zoological study with a theological role: it signifies the power of Mary’s virtue to tame the lust of Eve (and thus Original Sin). The fisherman’s house in the background was perhaps the most copied of all Dürer’s landscape motifs.