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<lang xml:lang="de-DE">Albrecht Dürer </lang>Presentation of Mary at the Temple, circa 1503 Woodcut mm 299x205 Donation of Guglielmo Guidi (February 2002) An extraordinary pinnacle of Renaissance woodcuts from beyond the Alps, The Presentation of Mary at the Temple belongs to the Engraving Cycle of the Life of Mary, one of <lang xml:lang="de-DE">Albrecht Dürer's</lang> most important works. The work – signed by the artist on the lower right panel – is generally dated back to 1503. <lang xml:lang="de-DE">Dürer </lang>develops the theme through a complex layout and a narrative that involves apparently secondary characters and elements: on the left, in the foreground, he places the basket with fruit, the lambs, the merchant with his wife who, in addition to introducing the main action through a clever play of planes, accompany the observer to the culminating motif: the child Virgin who is preparing to climb the fifteen steps of the temple, where, welcomed by the priest, she will live until the age of twelve in the company of the other young virgins. On the right of the scene we recognize the large figures of Joachim and Anna, Mary's parents. The mother, with her head slightly bowed, seems to show a veiled melancholy, almost as if to foreshadow the destiny of the Daughter as an indispensable means for the Revelation of the Lord: with her left hand she indicates the lambs with their legs tied, an all too explicit prefiguration of Christ and his martyrdom. Next to Anna, Joachim uncovers his head in a sign of reverence, also showing an intimate awareness. Beyond, on the top of the large arch, Dürer places the figure of Hercules who firmly holds by the throat the dog Cerberus, captured by him on his journey to Hades. The presence of the mythological hero, in this particular context, must be interpreted in the light of the philosophical doctrine of Neoplatonism and takes on the particular meaning of "Advent". In the new correspondence between mythology and Holy Scripture, the episode in which Hercules goes to the afterlife is reinterpreted as a clear "prefiguration of Jesus". The Revelation of the Son of God is also alluded to in the very ceremony of the Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, which in the past was understood as an overt symbol of Mary's consecration in her role as intermediary for the Incarnation of Christ.