Christ Taking Leave of His Mother (c. 1504–1505): Art, History and Details

Christ Taking Leave of His Mother (c. 1504–1505) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

These two woodcuts (1959.99.16-17) feature events that overlap in both Mary’s and Jesus’s lives. The first is a scene in which Mary finds Jesus, after days of searching, speaking from behind a lectern to the temple’s elders. The second refers to the the moment Mary was forced to say goodbye to her son as he leaves for Jerusalem and ultimately on to the events of his Passion. This print represents the most sorrowful episode of the series as Mary kneels, beseeching Jesus to stay.

Object facts

• Title: Christ Taking Leave of His Mother
• Date: c. 1504–1505
• Creator attribution: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)
• Culture: Germany, early 16th Century
• Type: Print
• Technique: woodcut
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1959.99.17

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Dürer, Albrecht. The Life of the Virgin. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1959.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.