
The Holy Family with Three Hares
<p>Albrecht Dürer used his early large-scale woodcuts to show the unprecedented delicacy of line that he could coax from a solid wooden block. This charming outdoor scene of the Virgin, Joseph, and the Christ Child is brimming with symbolism—from the Virgin’s miraculous fertility, as implied by the three playful hares in the lower margin, to the coral necklace around Christ’s neck, which, in its bloodlike beads, both protected him from the plague and presaged his death on the cross.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1496
- Dimensions
- 39 × 28.2 cm (15 3/8 × 11 1/8 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Albrecht Dürer
Artist

Painting
Albrecht Dürer, sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I.
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More by Albrecht Dürer
Coat of Arms of Wilhelm and Wolfgang Rogendorf
1864 · Lithograph in black on ivory wove paper
Copies After details in Various Durer Prints
1800 · Pen and brown ink, with touches of black chalk, on cream laid paper
The Annunciation, from The Life of the Virgin
1590 · Woodcut in black on ivory laid paper
Dead Blue Roller
1583 · watercolor and gouache with touches of gold
Madonna on a Grassy Bank
1566 · Engraving on ivory laid paper
The Abduction of Proserpine on a Unicorn
1540 · Etching in black on ivory laid paper
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Albrecht Dürer
- Year
- 1496
- Dimensions
- 39 × 28.2 cm (15 3/8 × 11 1/8 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1496-044934
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified




