This masterful engraving by German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer depicts the Madonna seated with the Christ Child on her lap, set within a classical landscape. At her feet sits a tethered monkey — an unusual yet symbolically rich motif. In Renaissance iconography, the monkey often symbolised sin, foolishness, or base instinct, offering a striking moral contrast to the purity of the Virgin.
Executed around 1498, Virgin and the Child with the Monkey exemplifies Dürer’s unparalleled technical skill, compositional balance, and his ability to embed complex theology within naturalistic detail. This impression is a Meder L (of L) state, noted for a small flaw in the plate (a visible hole at the upper centre), indicating a later printing from the same original copperplate. The work is signed in the plate with Dürer’s iconic monogram.
Praised by S.R. Koehler as "one of the most beautiful and dignified" of Dürer’s Madonnas, the image has been historically referenced in numerous scholarly texts for its symbolic complexity and grace.
