The Death of the Virgin 18th c.

Thomas Worlidge made this etching of ‘The Death of the Virgin’ in eighteenth-century Britain. This image depicts a scene of collective mourning, the Virgin Mary on her deathbed, surrounded by a crowd of grieving figures. Worlidge made this etching at a time when the art world was becoming more professionalized and institutionalized, with the rise of art academies, museums, and art criticism. As such, the art market encouraged a more secular, Protestant approach to the art of earlier periods. Worlidge was part of a generation that sought to redefine British art through a renewed engagement with the art of the past. He often paid homage to seventeenth-century Dutch masters, especially Rembrandt, whose etching style he emulated. Understanding this work requires exploring the cultural and institutional contexts that shaped both its creation and reception. Art historians use a range of resources, including archival documents, period criticism, and social histories, to better understand the meaning of art as something that is contingent on its social and institutional context.