Why it matters
The Sorrowing Mother is surrounded by seven scenes of the Virgin's sorrows. Commissioned by Frederick the Wise of Saxony, the polyptych is now split between Munich and Dresden.
Did you know?
- Dürer probably started work around 1500.
- Modern scholars attribute only the central panel to Dürer himself.
- Restoration in the 1930s revealed the sword and shell-shaped niche that clarify the subject.
Based on the Wikipedia article Seven Sorrows Polyptych (CC BY-SA 4.0).
