Praying Hands
1508 · Brush and grey ink, heightened with white, on blue-prepared paper · Albertina, Vienna
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About this work
- Artist
- Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)
- Year
- 1508
- Medium
- Brush and grey ink, heightened with white, on blue-prepared paper
- Original size
- 29.1 × 19.7 cm
- Collection
- Albertina, Vienna
- Movement
- Northern Renaissance
Two hands are pressed together in prayer, palms touching and fingers upright, the turned-back sleeves of a robe at the wrists, drawn with brush in grey ink and heightened with white on paper Dürer prepared himself in blue. The sheet, dated 1508, belongs to the work for the Heller Altarpiece, a triptych commissioned by the Frankfurt merchant Jakob Heller, in which the hands belong to an apostle kneeling at the right of the central panel. The painted altarpiece was destroyed by fire in 1729 and is known from a copy. The drawing was long called a preparatory study; a more recent view is that its finished execution on costly blue paper makes it a careful record of the painted hands, made to keep. Dürer made about eighteen drawings for the altarpiece, and the head of the same apostle was once on a sheet joined to this one. First shown publicly in Vienna in 1871, it has since become one of the most reproduced images of prayer. It is in the Albertina in Vienna.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
Two praying hands in grey and white brushwork on a soft blue ground, calm and devotional, for a study, hallway or reading corner at 16×24 in natural wood. A white, pale blue or stone wall; it pairs with The Light of the World.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Northern Renaissance painting
- Era
- 16th century (1508)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- hallway or entryway, study or library, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — black suits the deep tones of this period; natural wood lightens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Praying Hands in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Praying Hands painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
