The Garden of Love
1480/90
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet trimmed within platemark: 36.6 × 29.3 cm (14 7/16 × 11 9/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
3708
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This elaborate engraving depicts nearly every aspect of courtly love and dates to the late medieval era, when the mating ritual was an accepted part of life among the nobility. The feast table in the walled courtyard boasts musical accompaniment, suggesting music truly is the food of love. Women drive the amorous games equally with men; a woman summarily dismisses a fools- cap-wearing suitor at the gate, while another daringly rides sidesaddle behind her lover on a twisting road. Men and women e...