Madonna of the Pear Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

Description of Albrecht Dürer’s painting of Mary and Child

In a series of his extraordinary portraits done over a decade (from 1510 to 1520), Dürer managed to bring together all the best qualities of man. He spent long years drawing and studying human personalities in order to learn how to convey them as accurately as possible in his works.

After a long search and definition of what exactly canonical human beauty should be, as well as numerous attempts to substantiate ideal norms of human appearance, he still stopped his choice on the face of a modern German man.

Such a representative was bound to belong to the intelligentsia. He had to be slightly anxious, anxious, have his own internal contradictions, be sufficiently strong-willed and possess a rich spiritual world and energy. Such important features Dürer is trying to find among the representatives of his contemporaries.

In all of his portraits remains such a familiar character. However, he manages to completely get rid of the vestiges of past times - the external fragmentation, excessive angularity of the human face, the rigidity of color shades and lines. The heroes from his portraits are always very integral and free in their poses and manners. The figures in the composition are always arranged very naturally, not protruding beyond the compositional space allotted to them.

Among geometric forms there is always a certain generalization and similarity, they are quite plastic. Similarly, in his work "Mary with the Child". The ovals and facial features echo each other. At the same time they are all made very smooth rounded lines, with no sharp corners. The bright details bring a certain boldness and contradiction to the composition. They all look whole and harmonious.