Birth of the Virgin

The birth here is Mary's, and the mother in the bed is her own mother, Anne. The painter set the scene in a room of his own time, around 1510. Anne sits up against a checked pillow between green and red curtains, while a woman in red feeds her with a spoon from a bowl. Behind them a woman in a white headcloth leans in, and another brings a beaker. A pewter jug stands on the step of the bed. Below, a young helper in a black cap lowers the swaddled baby into a wooden tub. The panel still belongs to the parish of Spittal an der Drau in Upper Carinthia, where it was kept in the rectory. The Belvedere included it in its 2021 exhibition on the age of Dürer, and has had it on long-term loan since 2024.