# The Circumcision of Christ, from The Life of the Virgin

**Albrecht Dürer** (German, 1471–1528)  
c. 1505, published 1511  
Woodcut in black on tan laid paper  
Image: 29.8 × 20.9 cm (11 3/4 × 8 1/4 in.); Sheet: 43.3 × 30.2 cm (17 1/16 × 11 15/16 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1927.2895. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/43925).

## About this work

The infant Christ is brought for circumcision, the rite performed on the eighth day after birth, in a scene from Dürer’s Life of the Virgin, a series of twenty woodcuts. He designed most of the blocks in the early 1500s and issued them together as a book in 1511, with Latin verses by the Benedictine monk Benedictus Chelidonius. Dürer’s achievement was to make the woodcut, until then a fairly coarse medium, carry fine hatching, deep architectural space and subtle modelling of light, all cut into the wood from his drawings.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Albrecht Dürer made this in about 1505, published 1511, aged 34. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

A work made of woodcut in black on tan laid paper.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Woodcut.** A relief print. The block is cut away around the lines, so the lines stand up to take the ink, and the sheet is pressed onto them.
- **Laid paper.** Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.

### [Albrecht Dürer](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/albrecht-durer)

German, 1471–1528; born in Nuremberg; died in Nuremberg

Dürer trained as a goldsmith with his father and then under the Nuremberg painter Michael Wolgemut, whose studio produced woodcut book illustrations. Two journeys to Italy brought him into contact with Venetian painting and the theory of proportion, which he set out to bring north. He raised woodcut and engraving to new heights of detail and ambition, issuing his own series such as The Apocalypse and The Life of the Virgin, and his engraving Adam and Eve of 1504 shows his study of the ideal human figure.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: Germany
- The artist was 34
- Real size: about 11 × 8 in (29 × 20 cm). The 8 × 10 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 16th century
- Movement: [Renaissance](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/renaissance)
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/145.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/145/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178; 30 × 40 in $228
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-circumcision-of-christ-from-the-life-of-the-virgin-aic-43925).