The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne by a Portal c. 1520s

Daniel Hopfer's engraving, “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne by a Portal,” created in the 1520s, depicts the traditional composition of the Holy Family. Mary sits with the Christ Child, who reaches out to his grandmother, Anne. The Holy Ghost is depicted as a dove above the scene, which takes place within a cloistered courtyard setting. The perspective of the scene is complex, opening out to the courtyard and then into a building beyond. Hopfer, a master of the German Renaissance printmaking style, uses cross-hatching and fine detail to create the illusion of light and shadow. The print is characteristic of its time, when religious and secular subject matter were increasingly explored in art.