Christ Among the Doctors, from the Life of the Virgin

The adolescent Christ is shown at a lectern in the right background, disputing the Pharisees within the great hall of a stylized temple. The seventeen prints in Dürer’s Life of the Virgin brought the perspective construction, refined forms, and complex expression of Renaissance painting to woodcut, a technique previously associated with simple, generally popular imagery. Disseminated across Europe, this series’ compositions and figural motifs were probably the most frequently quoted images of the sixteenth century. This impression, printed before the usual addition of text to the verso, is notable for its exceptional clarity and perfect condition.