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Sarah Noyes Chester
1722–1797
87 3/4 x 70 5/8 in. (222.9 x 179.4 cm)
medium: Linen embroidered with wool
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 44.140 1944
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Coit Johnson, through their son and daughter, 1944
The Virgin, who has suffered some damage over time, stands in a swaying pose to support the missing Child on her left arm. Her apron-style drapery hangs in deep folds, and her head was once ornamented with a metal crown. The rendering of her deep-set eyes and slightly pinched features is not found in French works, but can be seen instead in English ivory and alabaster sculptures as early as the mid-13th century.
English
65 x 2 1/4 x 1 5/8 in. (165.1 x 5.7 x 4.1 cm)
medium: ivory
style: Gothic
culture: English
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Primarily a painter and draftsman, Albrecht Altdorfer made only nine etchings, which were intended to imitate his drawings. Those he made between 1522 and 1525—printed in very small numbers for a growing market of print collector—are considered the first prints in European art to depict pure landscape without narrative or devotional content. Here, he displayed remarkable freedom of draftsmanship and apparent spontaneity. The site depicted cannot be readily identified, <br>and Altdorfer probably composed it from his imagination. Early etchings, such as this one, were made on iron rather than copper plates, which rendered the lines slightly hazy.
Germany, 16th century
etching
Platemark: 11.8 x 16.3 cm (4 5/8 x 6 7/16 in.); Sheet: 11.8 x 16.3 cm (4 5/8 x 6 7/16 in.)
Did you know...
To make this early etching, the artist used an iron plate rather than the more supple copper, which would shortly come to dominate etching technique.
John L. Severance Fund