Peter von Cornelius (design)
Ferdinand Ruscheweyh (execution)
Gretchen: “Oh, you who suffer so much, turn your gracious face toward my distress!”
Illustration for Goethe’s “Faust I,” sheet 9, 1816
Etching (F)
Berlin State Museums, Kupferstichkabinett
After Faust seduces the young girl, she finds herself expecting an illegitimate child. At that time, this meant social ruin for a woman. So Gretchen begs the Virgin Mary, in the form of Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows), for mercy.