Workshop of Albrecht Dürer, 'The Virgin and Child', about 1500 to 1510.
London, The National Gallery.

Dürer and the Virgin in the Garden

This fascinating and beautiful exhibition traced the development of Dürer's images of the Virgin and Child in a garden through his drawings and prints, including the famous watercolour of 'The Virgin with the Animals' from the Albertina in Vienna.

The recent re-assessment of the National Gallery's painting of 'The Virgin with the Iris', produced in Dürer's workshop, formed the focus of the display, offering intriguing insights into technical and art-historical investigation.

The exhibition also brought together the major surviving watercolour studies on which the plants in the National Gallery painting were based. These included some of Dürer's most famous works, the 'Great Piece of Turf' from the Albertina in Vienna, and the 'Irises' from the Kunsthalle Bremen, as well as Martin Schongauer's beautiful study of 'Peonies' from the Getty Museum, owned by Dürer himself. Dürer's painting of 1503 of the 'Virgin and Child', from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, was also included.

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