The Death of the Virgin (1510): Art, History and Details

The Death of the Virgin (1510) 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:

Dürer depicted the scene of the Virgin’s death (1959.99.18) as an intimate one, with the apostles keeping vigil around her deathbed. Three days later they witnessed Mary’s bodily assumption into paradise where she was crowned the Queen of Heaven (1959.99.19). The final print (1959.99.20), which some believe was conceived independently from the series because it falls outside of the typical narrative, shows the Virgin in a domestic setting surrounded by several saints, angels, and putti that celebrate her life-an especially fitting way to end the series.

Object facts

• Title: The Death of the Virgin
• Date: 1510
• Creator attribution: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)
• Culture: Germany, early 16th Century
• Type: Print
• Technique: woodcut
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1959.99.18

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.