Workshop of Albrecht Dürer with Hans Baldung Grien, 'The Virgin and Child ('The Madonna with the Iris')', about 1500-10

The Virgin and Child ('The Madonna with the Iris')

Workshop of Albrecht Dürer with Hans Baldung Grien

Not on display

About the work

Overview

The Virgin Mary breastfeeds the infant Christ in a walled garden surrounded by flowers. God the Father, a small figure radiating light, appears in the sky above. The image of the Virgin and Christ Child in a garden was derived from the poetic imagery of the Song of Solomon, a book of the Old Testament. In it, a woman is described as a lily and a rose as well as an enclosed garden (which, when associated with Mary, came to symbolise her virginity).

This painting was probably made by members of Dürer’s workshop. It includes flowers that are derived from his detailed watercolour studies of the natural world – one of his particular artistic preoccupations – many of which would have been available in the workshop. Each floral element had theological significance: the iris and the rose were associated with the Virgin’s ‘Seven Sorrows’, while the grapevine with large leaves and delicate tendrils was a symbol of the Eucharist (when Christians drink wine at Mass in remembrance of Christ).

In-depth

The Virgin Mary breastfeeds the infant Christ in a walled garden surrounded by vegetation and spring flowers. An arch in the wall reveals the sea beyond, while God the Father – a small figure radiating light – appears in the sky above.

The image of the Virgin and Christ Child in a garden was derived from the imagery of the Old Testament book, the Song of Solomon. It is a collection of love poems in which a woman describes herself as ‘the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys’ (Song of Solomon 2:1), as well as an enclosed garden, often referred to by the Latin term hortus conclusus. The woman in the text was associated with Mary, and the enclosed garden was seen as a metaphor of her perpetual virginity.

The image was extremely popular in the Middle Ages and maintained its popularity in Dürer’s lifetime. He made several prints and drawings of the Virgin and Child in the hortus conclusus, a theme he began to develop in studies in around 1503. The garden setting suited the contemporary enthusiasm in Germany in particular for the close study of nature. Each floral element in this painting also has theological significance. The iris was associated with the Virgin’s ‘Seven Sorrows’ – resembling a sword, it was linked with the metaphorical sword that the priest Simeon told Mary would pierce her soul (Luke 2: 35). The grapevine with large leaves and delicate tendrils was a symbol of the Eucharist (when Christians drink wine at Mass in remembrance of Christ).

Dürer’s many detailed watercolour studies of flowers, vegetation, landscapes and animals reflect his idea that, as he wrote, ‘The more exactly one equals nature, the better the picture looks’. The iris is virtually identical to a watercolour study now in the Kunsthalle Bremen, while the peonies to the right relate very closely to a study of the flower made by Schongauer, which Dürer almost certainly owned. One of Dürer’s most famous studies of a humble patch of turf (Albertina, Vienna) seems to have inspired the vegetation on the left of the grassy bench around the Virgin’s mantle, and the bugle and the lily of the valley (neither of which are in flower) resemble a drawing by the workshop (British Museum, London). All of these would have been available in Dürer’s workshop.

Although the work is not by Dürer’s own hand, the reuse of many of these studies suggests that the picture was produced in his workshop, possibly while he was in Venice in 1505–7. Infrared reflectography reveals the drawing beneath the paint surface and has shown that several artists were involved, though we cannot identify specific individuals. The underdrawing of the Virgin and Christ Child is careful and precise, suggesting they were copied from an existing design. A rose was drawn to the right of the Virgin’s head but was not included in the final image, while the grasses and plants at the left do not appear in the underdrawing they were added during the painting process. The iris was freely drawn but altered in the final painting. These discrepancies suggest the work was composed in sequential phases by different painters. The butterfly perching on the Virgin’s mantle and her white veil were added on top of the painting’s varnish layer.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Virgin and Child ('The Madonna with the Iris')
Artist: Workshop of Albrecht Dürer with Hans Baldung Grien
Artist dates: 1471 - 1528; 1484/5 - 1545
Date made: about 1500-10
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 149.2 × 117.2 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought through the Art Fund, 1945
Inventory number: NG5592
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 20th-century Replica Frame

Provenance

By 1821 NG 5592 was in the collection of court drawing master Georg Joseph Felsenberg (died 1835?) in Vienna. It was said in 1915 to have been acquired by exchange with a relative at Nuremberg, but there is no independent confirmation of this; it was evidently sold after the death of Felsenberg’s widow, the engraver Maria Anna Fischer (1785–1844). It was bought by the architect and engineer Peter Hubert Desvignes (1804–1883), who was employed in Vienna from 1837 on the refurbishment of the Liechtenstein Palace and other projects, but returned to England in 1849 or shortly after; he mentions in a letter of 4 May 1872 that he bought the painting from ‘the well-known proprietor’ described by Joseph Heller. It was offered by him to the National Gallery in 1872 for display with the option of purchase, along with a painting by Andrea del Sarto ‘from the same collector’, but in vain: the letter is marked ‘no funds, no inspections’ as the Trustees were at that time preoccupied with the British paintings at the South Kensington Museum. NG 5592 was sold in 1891 and acquired in 1892 by Sir Francis Cook (1817–1901); it was regarded as one of the prime pictures in his notable collection, hanging at Doughty House, Richmond in the First Gallery as ‘No. 46’. In 1945 it was one of a group of six pictures acquired by the National Gallery from the Trustees of the Cook collection through the National Art-Collections Fund.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Susan Foister, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The German Paintings before 1800’, London 2024; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2010

Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries

The National Gallery (London)

30 June 2010 - 12 September 2010
2014

Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance

The National Gallery (London)

19 February 2014 - 11 May 2014
2019

Albrecht Dürer (2020)

Albertina

20 September 2019 - 6 January 2020
2021

The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Dürer's Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist

The National Gallery (London)

20 November 2021 - 27 February 2022

Bibliography

1882

M. Thausing, Albert Dürer, His Life and Works, London 1882
1902

C. Dodgson, The Dürer Society, London 1902
1906

E. Heidrich, Geschichte des Dürerschen Marienbildes, Leipzig 1906
1906

M.J. Friedländer, 'Die Ausstellung Altdeutscher Kunst im Burlington Fine Arts Club zu London, Sommer 1906', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, XXIX, 1906
1906

C. Ricketts, 'Early German Art at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, III: Dürer and His Successors', The Burlington Magazine, IX/40, 1906, pp. 264-8
1909

G. Glück, 'Fälschungen auf Dürers Namen aus der Sammlung Erherzog Leopold Wilhelms', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, 1909, pp. 1-25
1913

H.F. Cook (ed.), A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt, 3 vols, London 1913
1928

E. Flechsig, Albrecht Dürer - sein Leben und seine künstlerische Entwicklung, Berlin 1928
1937

H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke Albrecht Dürers: Band II, der reife Dürer, Basel 1937
1945

E. Panofsky, Albrecht Dürer, London 1945
1945

C. Dodgson, 'Dürer's Virgin with the Iris', The Burlington Magazine, LXXXVII/512, 1945, pp. 273-6
1947

K.R. Towndrow, 'A Note upon Dürer's "Virgin with the Iris" Lately Acquired by the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, LXXXIX/529, pp. 100-2
1955

The National Gallery, The National Gallery: 1938 - 1954, London 1955
1959

Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The German Schools, London 1959
1961

L.D. Ettlinger, 'Reflections on German Paintings: Review of Michael Levey, the German School, 1959', The Burlington Magazine, CIII/697, 1961, pp. 132-8
1962

O. Beyer, 'Dürers herrlichstes Madonnenbild - Begegnung mit dem Londoner Original', Neue Schau, 1962, pp. 434-9
1978

H. Baldung Grien, Das graphische Werk: Vollständiger Bildkatalog der Einzelholzschnitte, Buchillustrationen und Kupferstiche, ed. M. Mende, Nuremberg 1978
1983

G. von der Osten, Hans Baldung Grien: Gemälde und Dokumente, Berlin 1983
1985

F. Koreny, Albrecht Dürer und die Tier- und Pflanzenstudien der Renaissance (exh. cat. Albertina, 18 April - 10 June 1985), Munich 1985
1986

K. Mittelstädt, Albrecht Dürer, Berlin 1986
1991

F. Anzelewsky, Albrecht Dürer: Das malerische Werk, revised edn, Berlin 1991
1993

P. Strieder, Tafelmalerei in Nürnberg, 1350-1550, Königstein im Taunus 1993
2000

P. Ackroyd et al., 'A Virgin and Child from the Workshop of Albrecht Dürer?', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XXI, 2000, pp. 28-42
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2005

E. Danziger, 'The Cook Collection: Its Founder and Its Inheritors', in Christie's, Old Master Pictures, London 2005, pp. 44-54
2024

S. Foister, National Gallery Catalogues: The German Paintings before 1800, 2 vols, London 2024

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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