Details
ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
The Holy Family with two Angels in a vaulted Hall
woodcut, circa 1503-1504, on laid paper, watermark Bull's Head with Staff and Caduceus (M. 81, circa 1510), a very good Meder b impression


Block & Sheet 217 x 152 mm.

Provenance
Paul Davidsohn (1839-1924), London, Vienna & Berlin (Lugt 654); his sale, C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, 3-8 May 1920, lot 1566 (Mk 1.000; 'excellent early impression before the gap behind Adam's head').
Literature
Bartsch 100; Meder, Hollstein 213; Schoch Mende Scherbaum 132
Special notice
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.
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Lot Essay

This is the first of the so-called 'modest woodcuts', a series of fourteen smaller single-leaf woodcuts which were probably intended for private devotion. The scene is set in a vaulted hall of Renaissance design, constructed according to the rules of central perspective, but the dense group of figures does not convincingly inhabit the room, but resembles a sculptural group in a niche.

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