Death of the Virgin

Date

1510

Creator

There is no description of Mary’s death in the Gospels, but a tradition held since the fifth century describes how the apostles assembled at her bedside as she lay dying. Dürer set his scene in an arched room furnished with a canopied bed surrounded by Jesus’s disciples who administer the Last Rites to her. John hands her a candle to hold as the rites are read, and Peter, wearing a bishop’s mitre, sprinkles holy water on her. Another apostle holds a tall processional cross for her to contemplate as she passes. The space being sacred, the men are all barefoot. Devotions to Mary became increasingly popular in the sixteenth century. This print is one in a series of nineteen focusing on Mary’s life that Dürer made between 1500 and 1510. He published the series as a bound book. Subsequent collectors and dealers broke the books to use or sell the sheets individually.