23 November 2015
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Christmas 2015 stamps
Malta Post has chosen three artworks by fifteenth-century artist Albrecht Durer which celebrate the life of Mary, Mother of Jesus, for its Christmas 2015 stamps.
Malta Post has chosen three artworks by fifteenth-century artist Albrecht Durer which celebrate the life of Mary, Mother of Jesus, for its Christmas 2015 stamps.
The three stamps feature the Durer prints ‘The Flight into Egypt’, ‘The Nativity of the Lord’ and ‘The Adoration of the Magi’, each of which can be found in the Cathedral Museum at Mdina, Malta.
Albrecht Durer was a German painter, born in Nuremburg in 1471. He worked as a painter, author, printer and draftsman and was famed for his detailed woodcuts, which inspired artists including Raphael and Titian. Durer’s paintings fetch good prices at auction, with auction guide prices often in the high tens of thousands. The world auction record for a Durer print came in 2013 when ‘The Rhinoceros’ fetched £545,895 in an auction at Christie’s, New York.
The three Malta Post stamps provide a religious theme for Christmas mail, showing the familiar nativity scene, with Mary, Joseph and Jesus in the stable; the three kings coming to visit Jesus after following the star; and the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt after King Herod discovered Jesus’s existence.
Stamp details
Issue date: 14 November 2015
Design: Malta Post
Size: 44mm x 31mm
Perforation: 13.9 x 14.0
Denomination: €0.26 (flight into Egypt); €0.59 (The Nativity); €0.63 (The Magi)
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(Images copyright Malta Post)