The Engagement of Mary

Unknown artist

Around 1504 Dürer designed the woodcut “The Engagement of Mary” as part of his 1511 with Latin texts of Chelidonius “Marienleben.” The artist shows the marriage between Mary and Joseph in front of a decorative arc that opens the view inside a temple. In the presence of the attendants, the high priest carefully places the hands of Mary and Joseph in each other. Due to the figures in the traditional costume of the Reichstadt Nuremberg and the Trauritus itself Dürer moved the scene into his own presence. In the list of woodcuts and woodcut sequences Dürer, published in 2002, the leaf is printed sideways (see Schoch II.241).