Head of the Virgin

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Head of the Virgin

Artist Hans Holbein the Elder (German, ca.1465-1524)

Place of OriginGermany

Date1500-1501

Dimensions17 1/4 × 14 3/8 in. (43.8 × 36.5 cm)
Framed: 20 × 17 1/2 in. (50.8 × 44.5 cm)

MediumOil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1951.341

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 16

Label TextThis painting of the Virgin Mary originally belonged to a polyptych (a multi-paneled altarpiece) that measured over 20 feet wide. Just a fragment, it was cut from a scene of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the mother of the Christ Child. Only one other fragment, Gabriel’s head, survives from the scene. Originally in the Dominican church in Frankfurt, Germany, the altarpiece was taken apart and dispersed in the 1700s when changes in church practice and artistic taste led to the removal of many such elaborate Medieval and Renaissance polyptychs. An engraving by Israhel von Meckenem may give an idea of the general composition of the original Holbein panel. It shows Mary and Gabriel before a framed picture of the pregnant Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth. This picture within a picture may explain the partial figure above Mary’s head in the Holbein painting.Published ReferencesSuida, W. ed., Österreichische Kunstschätze, III, 1914, pl. 73.

Schilling, Edmund, "Die Marientafeln Holbeins des Älteren am Frankfurter Dominikaneraltar," Staedel Jahrbuch, VI, 1930, pp. 21, 23, fig. IXc.

Stange, Alfred, Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, Munich, 1957, VIII, pp. 65-67.

Lieb, Norbert, and Alfred Stange, Hans Holbein der Ältere, Munich, 1960, pp. 15-18, no. 17L, figs. 57, 59.

Beutler, C., and G. Thiem, Hans Holbein d.Ä., die Spätgotische Altar-und Glasmalerei, Augsburg, 1960, pp. 48, 53.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "What is Conservation," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series, vol. 8, no. 3, Autumn 1965, pp. 51-67, repr. pp. 61-62.

Strieder, Peter, "Hans Holbein der Ältere und die Kunst der Spätgotik," Kunstchronik, XVIII, Nov. 1965, p. 294.

Bushart, B., Hans Holbein der Ältere, Bonn, 1965, pp. 23-24.

Osten, Gert von der, Painting and Sculpture in Germany and The Netherlands, 1500-1600, Harmondsworth, 1969, p. 109.

"Painting in Northern Europe 1450-1550," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series, vol. 13, no. 2, Summer 1970.

Koreny, F., "'Das Marienleben' des Israhel van Meckenem und Hans Holbein d. Ä," in Israhel van Meckenem und der Deutsch Kupferstich des 15. Jahrhunderts, Bocholt, 1972, p. 60, fig. 79.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 78, pl. 65.

Exhibition HistoryLucerne, Kunstmuseum, Meisterwerke aus den Sammlungen des Fürsten von Liechtenstein, 1948, no. 59.

The Brooklyn Museum, Take Care, 1954.

Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Feb.-Sept. 1958, long term loan for teaching purposes.

Atlanta Art Association, Collectors' Firsts, Feb. 18-March 1, 1959.

Augsburg, Rathaus, Hans Holbein der Ältere und die Kunst der Spatgotik, 1965, no. 31, fig. 31.