Pilgrims at the Church of the 'Beautiful Virgin' at Regensburg

Pilgrims at the Church of the 'Beautiful Virgin' at Regensburg

Michael Ostendorfer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This scene shows the religious fervor that surrounded the miraculous image of the Beautiful Virgin of Regensburg. Pilgrims are shown lining up to get into the wooden church that was erected temporarily on the site of the old synagogue and prostrating themselves before the statue of the Virgin and Child carved in 1516 by Erhard Heydenreich, architect of the cathedral. The thirteenth-century icon was credited with the miracle of the stone mason, and soon after reports of further miracles boosted publicity for the site. In 1519 a list was published including 74 miracles, three years later, as many as 731 were recorded. Originally printed in 1519 or 1520, the block was reused in 1610 with a separately printed German text pasted underneath. The text of the new inscription is also written in black pen and ink in the upper portion of the print.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pilgrims at the Church of the 'Beautiful Virgin' at RegensburgPilgrims at the Church of the 'Beautiful Virgin' at RegensburgPilgrims at the Church of the 'Beautiful Virgin' at RegensburgPilgrims at the Church of the 'Beautiful Virgin' at RegensburgPilgrims at the Church of the 'Beautiful Virgin' at Regensburg

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.