The Virgin Mary
1788
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1788
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
The Virgin Mary is a 1788 by Joseph Ignaz Huber, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This print shows a woman holding a baby. She’s sitting on a chair with a draped cloth, her left arm wrapped around the child. The baby looks up at her, and she gazes down softly. The background is dark, with a curtain and a faint window. The title tells us this is meant to be *The Virgin Mary*—a common religious subject in art. The artist used shading to make the figures stand out against the dark background. Next, look up chiaroscuro to see how this lighting trick works in other prints.
The print depicts the Virgin Mary and is based on a work by Raphael. Produced on paper, it was attributed to Joseph Ignaz Huber according to sources like Nagler and Le Blanc, though the print itself bears the name J. J. J. Huber.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Joseph Ignaz Huber spent his life carving tiny woodblocks in a Munich attic, inking them so carefully you can still smell the linseed oil 250 years later.
See the richer artist page
