Tod Mariae (Kopie nach)

Death of the Virgin (copy after Dürer), this work after Dürer's composition, reflects the importance of his religious designs as models for subsequent painters. The Death of the Virgin was a subject of deep devotional significance in late medieval Christianity — the end of the earthly life of Christ's mother, surrounded by the apostles who had gathered miraculously for the occasion. Dürer's treatment of the subject, whether in this copy or the original, combined the emotional pathos of the northern devotional tradition with the spatial organization and figure articulation he had absorbed from Italian art. His religious compositions were so influential that copies and adaptations continued to be made for decades after his death in 1528.

While following Dürer's compositional design, the copy shows less refined handling in the drapery passages and facial expressions, consistent with workshop production practices of the period.