Master M.Z.
German, active 1500-1550
The Madonna by the Fountain
INV-3692
Master M.Z.
German, active 1500-15501501
The Madonna by the Fountain
Master M.Z. German, active 1500-1550 →engravingprint
Date
1501
Medium
Engraving on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet trimmed within platemark: 17.9 × 14.6 cm (7 1/16 × 5 3/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
The artist known as Master M. Z. produced a number of idiosyncratic devotional and secular engraved subjects in Northern Germany around the beginning of the 16th century. This massively sculptural Madonna fills a dainty cup for the Christ Child from a fountain spout with the features of a lion or possibly a monkey. The composition closely recalls Albrecht Dürer’s well-known Madonna with the Monkey. While Dürer’s Christ Child has been distracted by a bird, here the large, naked Christ tugs at the tunic of the tender, if slightly amused Virgin, as if to suggest breast milk would be preferable to water.
Also notable
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