Albrecht Dürer

A very fine lifetime impression, printing with remarkable clarity, intense contrasts and much depth, with burr in the drapery and in the tree trunk. With the watermark desired in the earliest impressions and before the scratch on the child's forehead. Dürer sets the scene in an Italian landscape. The pear and apple are considered a symbol of the Virgin Mary. It is the first depiction of "Mother and Child" since 1503, the next not following until 1514. Thread margins. – Faint brown ink stains below the pear. Traces and remnants of a previous mounting on the reverse, otherwise in very good condition.