The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne is a magnificent 1519 devotional oil painting by Albrecht Durer. It is a piece that showcases rich colour, attention to detail and simplicity of form. Durer painted this image at a time when Saint Anne was venerated in Germany.

It was for this reason that Durer made efforts to make the Holy people in the image look like Germans. In that case, he used his wife Agnes, who was then in her mid-forties as a model to illustrate Anne. Here, the features of St Anne have been softened, making her to appear younger. Anne’s hands are seen resting on her daughter’s shoulder in the form of consolation, with a distant gaze that suggests Christ’s passion premonition. Her youthful daughter Mary, on the other hand, puts her hands together against her child in adoration. The infant who rests against St. Anne gives the expression of death. Currently, the painting is open for view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Adam and Eve by Albrecht Durer is a 1504 engraving demonstrated with artistic innovation. In this painting, Adam and Eve are seen standing in a dense and dark forest. Both figures are frontal and stand in counterpoise position, with the bodyweight resting on one foot. While a parrot perches on a branch, six other animals, including an ox, rabbit, elk, goat and a cat are seen strolling or standing. The image explores Renaissance, Durer and the German life and not the text of Genesis.

Adoration of the Magi is a 1504 oil masterpiece painted with Italian influences. Durer painted it after travelling to Italy and being in touch with Italian art and ancient artworks by other popular painters of the time, including Leonardo, Mantegna and Bellini. The image gives a description of the Virgin showing her child to the three wise men who had come with gifts of incense, myrrh and gold.

Adoration of the Trinity by Durer is a religious iconography painted between 1509-1511. The oil on wood panel painting gives the viewer a dazzling vision of Heaven. In the painting, Christ is at the top centre, with a figure of God above and behind him. A white dove is seen resting on the head of God the father, and around it is a beam of light. Around the Trinity are figures of angels, and to the left, close to Jesus feet is the Virgin Mary and a group of female saints seen holding palms. On the right side of Christ are male saints and Moses with the ten commandments. Beneath the heavenly scene is the earth.