Virgin and Child

The combination of dark, greenish-blue paper with yellow, white, and especially pink gouache links this sheet to fifteenth-century artists active around the artistic center of Ulm, in the region of Swabia, in southern Germany. The drawing has been attributed to Bernard Strigel and associated with the work of Fredrich Herlin of Nördlingen, near Ulm. The artist conveys a tender scene between the Virgin and Child seated in a narrow, vaulted room enriched with details of Christian significance such as the apple—symbolizing sin and Christ’s role as Redeemer—which the Virgin presents and the Christ Child accepts. Three windows in the background evoke the Holy Trinity, while the frame of the one at left assumes the form of a cross. This drawing, which does not relate to a known print or painting, may have been made as an independent work of art.

Henry Oppenheimer, London, 1926. His sale, July 10–14, 1936, Christie’s, Lot 405. Frick, 1936.

Source: The Frick Collection: Drawings, Prints & Later Acquisitions. Volume IX. New York: The Frick Collection, 2003.