Mary Magdalene

1523

Silverpoint on white prepared paper

195 × 135 mm

Purchase, 1896

Dürer’s genuine drawing, now only faintly visible, is made with a very fragile technique, silverpoint, on white prepared paper. The damages of the bone white ground of the paper was already visible when it was purchased in the English art market in 1896, as evidenced by a photograph taken on the occasion of its first publication. The drawing was retouched before the sale, covering up the abrasions of the white ground. Some lines were reinforced and the AD monogram was scraped out for an unknown reason.