Young Woman Attacked by Death (The Ravisher)
c. 1495
Medium
Engraving in black on off-white laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 11.3 × 10.2 cm (4 1/2 × 4 1/16 in.); Sheet: 15.4 × 11.6 cm (6 1/8 × 4 5/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
78623
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Albrecht Dürer produced a number of early prints warning against the pleasures of the flesh, including the Ill-Assorted Couple. Perhaps the most insidious to modern eyes is this seductively velvety engraving. The ravisher’s young victim writhes on a fence much like the one often occupied by the Virgin Mary in other Dürer engravings. Whether she has fallen into the hands of a lusty wild man or Death himself, both her virtue and her life are clearly at stake. In a maelstrom of violent wind, his bo...
About the Artist
Albrecht Dürer · 1471–1528
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) stands as the preeminent figure of the Northern Renaissance and arguably the most influential artist in the history of printmaking. Born in Nuremberg on May 21, 1471, and dying in the same city on April 6, 1528, Dürer revolutionized the status of the artist in Northern Europe, transforming printmaking from a commercial craft into an independent fine art and establishing ...