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Virgin and Child with the Apple (verso)

German 15th/16th Century

1472

ink

paper

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Renaissance Renaissance Religious

Dominant colour

Virgin and Child with the Apple (verso) is a 1472 ink by German 15th/16th Century, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.

Who painted this?: German 15th/16th Century
When & what style?: 1472 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: National Gallery of Art

About this work

This drawing shows a woman holding a small child. She’s dressed in a long, flowing robe with folds drawn carefully in ink. The child reaches for an apple in her hand, and her hair is loose and wavy. The lines are dark and precise, with no color—just black ink on paper. The paper has a watermark and a small stamp in the corner, like an old bookplate. The artist used lots of tiny parallel lines to build up shadows, making the cloth look three-dimensional. Look up cross-hatching to see how this shading trick works.