The Death of the Virgin

The Death of the Virgin is a meticulously printed pre-publication impression taken from a woodblock prepared for Albrecht Dürer’s elegant illustrated book, The Life of the Virgin. Twelve apostles attend Mary on her deathbed. Some pray; some read. One holds a censer, another a tall staff topped with a cross. John the Evangelist removes the burning taper from Mary's hand as she peacefully falls still. Peter, wearing a miter symbolic of his new role as leader of the fledgling church, blesses her with an aspergillum which has been charged in the pot of holy water held by his assistant. Light enters the room from the right, adding to the perspectival space and giving the figures full dimension. We are in a sacred place; so, the men have removed their shoes—Dürer gives us a fragmentary view of one discarded piece of footwear shoved beneath the bed. With this woodcut and others of similarly high quality, Dürer fused the intricacy of German art with the structure and airiness then flourishing in Italian art.