Artwork Page for Knight, Death, and the Devil

Details / Information for Knight, Death, and the Devil

Knight, Death, and the Devil

1513

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)
Culture
Germany
Medium
engraving
Support
Cream(3) laid paper
Measurements
Sheet: 24.4 x 19 cm (9 5/8 x 7 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Elisabeth Severance Prentiss and Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Collections by exchange 1965.231
Catalogue raisonné
Meder 1932, 74a/g
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

The personification of Death in this image holds an hourglass whose sands are exactly half full, which may indicate a turning point in the rider's life choices.

Description

In this tour de force engraving, considered one of his three greatest “masterworks,” Albrecht Dürer portrayed a mounted soldier who resolutely forges through a dark gorge, ignoring a horned devil in his path. Confronted by Death itself, crowned with snakes and holding an hourglass indicating mortality, the soldier and his faithful dog demonstrate the strength of righteousness required to stay upon the right path. The skull underfoot suggests that others have not been
so resolute. Indeed, this road of life is full of obstacles, with the city on the hill accessible, it seems, only by way of treacherous peaks.
Intricate print in black ink of a knight riding a horse, a dog underneath, and in profile facing our left. Behind the knight, to our right, a creature with a furry, long-snouted face and curling horns watches the knight, as does, to the left, a skeletal bearded figure with a crown entwined with snakes, holding an hourglass topped with a clock. In the background, through trees and rocks, rises a city on a hill.

Knight, Death, and the Devil

1513

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)
Germany

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