Christmas Card Albrecht Durer 1506 Postcard

Albrecht Dürer 1506 Feast of the Rosary Christmas Card ... An amazing painting. The Feast of the Rosary (German: Rosenkranzfest) is a 1506 oil painting by Albrecht Dürer, now in Prague, Czech Republic. According to a Czechoslovakian art historian, it is "probably the most superb painting that a German master has ever created." The work also relates to a series of artworks commissioned by Maximilian I, his Burgundian subjects or figures close to his family to commemorate the Duchess Mary of Burgundy, Maximilian's first wife and to provide the focus for a cult-like phenomenon that associated her name-saint the Virgin Mary. The painting shows the Virgin Mary at the centre, enthroned and holding the Christ Child, with two flying angels holding an elaborated royal crown made of gold, pearls and gems over her; this was a Flemish art scheme already widespread in the German area at the time. The throne's backrest is covered with a green drape and by a baldachin which is also held by two flying cherubim. A single angel sits at the Virgin's feet playing a lute, an evident homage to Giovanni Bellini's altarpieces. Mary is depicted handing out rose garlands to two groups of kneeling worshippers, portrayed in two symmetrical rows at the sides. The two rows are headed, on the left, by Pope Julius II (who had been approved the German fraternities with a bull in 1474), crowned by the Child and followed by a procession of religious figures; and, on the right, by the German emperor Frederick III (portrayed with the face of his son and patron of Dürer, Maximilian I), crowned by Mary and followed by a procession of lay people. Dürer likely based his portrait of the emperor on a drawing by Ambrogio de Predis, who had worked for Maximilian at Innsbruck. The pope and the emperor, then considered to be the supreme authorities of the Catholic world, have taken off the papal tiara and the imperial crown respectively and are shown kneeling before the Virgin to receive the Christ Child's blessing. Other angels are distributing crowns of flowers, as well as St. Dominic of Guzman (protector of the adoration of Mary and of the Rosary), who stands at the side of the Virgin. Near the left border is the patriarch of Venice, Antonio Soriano, with the hands joined, and, next to him, Burkard von Speyer, then chaplain of the church of San Bartolomeo, who was also portrayed by Dürer in another painting. On the right, near a lush Alpine landscape, is the artist's self-portrait with a cartouche in his hand: here is the signature with a short inscription, reporting the time needed to complete the work. The characters next to the painter are likely Leonhard Vilt, founder of the Brotherhood of the Rosary in Venice, and (in black) Hieronymus of Augsburg, the architect of the new Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Annexed is the donor's portrait.