Madonna with the Monkey

Albrecht Dürer’s touchingly delicate landscape engraving of the Madonna with the Christ Child in her arms and a domesticated monkey has been the subject of many subsequent interpretations. One of the earliest, broadly rethought by the Master M. Z., is also on display nearby, while the background reappears in another Art Institute work, Giulio Campagnola’s Ganymede. In contrast, Agostino Veneziano in Italy and the Wierix brothers in the Netherlands would try their hand at reproducing the composition exactly.