I cannot believe that it has been almost a year since my last post. In the intervening period, I have been very busy and I finally have something to show for it. Recently I designed and installed a print exhibition at the Blanton Museum of Art. The title of the show is “Ave Maria: Devotional Prints in the Age of Martin Luther.” Here is the blurb as a description of the exhibit:

“Long a pillar of Christianity, devotion to the Virgin Mary was transformed by Martin Luther’s challenges to the papacy begun in 1517 and recorded in the profusion of prints churned out by newly established presses across Europe. This exhibition, featuring examples by Albrecht Dürer and Marcantonio Raimondi, explores the changes Marian imagery underwent in the 1500s and the role devotional prints played in worshippers’ lives.”

Essentially, what I did was to create a few groups of 3-4 prints each, which would highlight different aspects of Marian Devotion in the late medieval and early modern periods. Those groups are: (1) The Young Virgin’s role in the Incarnation as shown through Annunciation scenes, (2) Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, (3) The Virgin in Pilgrimage, (4) The Virgin as Mother shown through scenes of the Holy Family and Rest on the Flight Imagery, (5) The Virgin as Compassionate shown through Pièta imagery, (6) The Virgin as an Object of Devotion, and (7) The Virgin as Queen of Heaven.

The show is up from March 21 – July 5. The Blanton Museum of Art is located at The University of Texas at Austin, MLK at Congress, Austin, Texas 78701.

I took some photographs and a short video of the show. I will post the video later, but here are some photos along with a list of prints on display.

Albrecht Dürer
The Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels, 1518

Marcantonio Raimondi
The Annunciation, circa 1506, after Albrecht Dürer

Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio
The Annunciation, 1536-1537, after Titian

Egidius Horbeck
The Annunciation and the Heavenly Glory, 1581, after Cornelis Cort, after Frederico Zuccaro

Michael Wolgemut
Saint Luke Painting the Virgin and Child, from the Weltchronik, or Liber Chronicarum [The Nuremberg Chronicle], 1493 ————>

Dirk Vellert
Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, 1526

Jacob Matham
Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, 1614, after Hendrick Goltzius

Anonymous
Italian (?), 16th century
A Devotional Virgin

Copy after Marcantonio Raimondi
Holy House of Loreto, circa 1575

Michael Ostendorfer
The Pilgrimage to the Beautiful Virgin at Regensburg, 1519

Lucas van Leyden
The Holy Family, circa 1508

Hendrick Goltzius
The Holy Family with the Young Saint John the Baptist, from Meisterstiche, 1593

Camillo Procaccini
Rest on the Flight into Egypt, 1587-1590

Jan Muller
Rest on the Flight, 1593, after Gerrit Pieterz

Giulio Bonasone
Il Silenzio (The Madonna of the Silence), 1561, after Michelangelo

Hendrick Goltzius
Pietà, 1596

Jean Mignon
Pietà, circa 1537 – 1540, after Luca Penni

Giulio Bonasone
Pietà for Vittoria Colonna, 1546, after Michelangelo

CENTRAL CASE:

Heinrich Aldegrever
The Virgin and Child at the Foot of a Tree, 1527

Albrecht Dürer
Madonna by the Wall, 1514

Hieronymus Wierix
The Virgin Suckling the Child, before 1619

Anonymous
Coronation of the Virgin, circa 1498

Daniel Hopfer I
Christ Blessing the Virgin, circa 1518-1520

Marcantonio Raimondi
The Virgin and Child on the Clouds, 16th century, after Raphael