Collect this incredibly detailed etching by Albrecht Dürer titled “Knight, Death and the Devil”!
This very image is included in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, The Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, Saint Louis Art Museum, High Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, British Museum (London, England), Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge, England), and Museum Plantin-Moretus (Antwerp, Belgium).
Dürer's Knight, Death, and the Devil is one of three large prints of 1513–14 known as his “master engravings”. The other two are Melancholia I and Saint Jerome in His Study. The prints are closely interrelated and complementary, corresponding to the three kinds of virtue in medieval scholasticism—theological, intellectual, and moral. Knight, Death, and the Devil embodies the state of moral virtue. Riding steadfastly through a dark Nordic gorge, Dürer's knight rides past Death on a Pale Horse, who holds out an hourglass as a reminder of life's brevity, and is followed closely behind by a pig-snouted Devil. As the embodiment of moral virtue, the rider—modeled on the tradition of heroic equestrian portraits with which Dürer was familiar from Italy—is undistracted and true to his mission. A haunting expression of the active life, the print is a testament to the way in which Dürer's thought and technique coalesced brilliantly in the "master engravings."
Details:
Artist bio:
Albrecht Dürer was regarded as the greatest German Renaissance artist. His work includes altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, engravings, and woodcuts. It's fair to say that without Albrecht Dürer, printmaking as we know it within art history and contemporary art, would not exist. Despite living approximately 500 years ago, he remains one of the most famous and important printmakers in art history, in particular bringing woodcuts printed in large editions into the realm of fine art and the art history canon. Even though Albrecht Dürer's fame was largely built on his prints and graphic style, his financial income was secured with commissions of paintings of religious subjects and portraits, and these works remain held in high esteem for their draughtsmanship and use of color. He was, and remains, the most famous artist of the Northern Renaissance who successfully integrated an elaborately-detailed Northern style with Italian Renaissance's ideals of balance, coherence, and monumentality. Dürer was the first artist to sign a piece of art. He was also the first artist that won a copyright lawsuit.
Notice of Updated Buyer Terms of Use
We have recently updated our Buyer Terms of Use. We encourage you to review the revised terms to ensure continued understanding and compliance. By continuing to use our platform, you acknowledge and agree to the updated terms. View the updated Terms of Use