In 1827 the scholar Joseph Heller called this “the most perfect and rare of all Dürer’s engravings.”  In 1888 S.R. Koehler assigned to it “a special place among all of Dürer’s plates.”  It is transitional from the technique of deep black lines to a more even-tempered, silvery mat texture.  Its mood is almost tragic, akin to that of “Melachholia I,” perhaps because of the death of Dürer’s mother, which occurred on May 14, 1514.  In 1905 Heinrich Wöllfin considered the “Madonna by the Wall” the ultimate of Dürer’s Madonnas: “It need not be analyzed.  The composition is so natural that everything falls into place.  Nowhere is there a rupture of contours.  The expression is achieved by forms within the silhouette.  The harmony of tone is incomparable.”  “The Madonna by the Wall” represents a perfect coincidence of apparent opposites.  Regal, virginal, yet humble and motherly.  Its utmost precision of design is combined in incomparable softness of texture.  In the background appears the castle of Nuremberg, which Dürer could see from the windows of his house.