ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
Lot 7 PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE FRENCH COLLECTION

ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)

Knight, Death and the Devil

Closed29 March 2017

Price Realised

GBP 52,500

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ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
Knight, Death and the Devil
engraving, 1513, on laid paper, without watermark, a very good, silvery Meder b-c impression, a thread margin at left and above, trimmed to or just inside the platemark at right and below, a tiny paper split at upper left, in very good condition
Sheet 243 x 188 mm.

Specialist note

Dürer himself referred to Knight, Death and the Devil, as it is known today, simply as ‘the rider’, thereby leaving room for much speculation, with the interpretations of the figure of the knight ranging from emperor to pope to heretic and robber baron. There
can be little doubt, however, that his knight is a a heroic figure, who fears neither death nor the devil. Today it is the generally accepted view that he represents the ideal of the Christian Knight or ‘miles christianus’, a concept which stems from the Epistles of Paul, but was revived in Dürer’s times by Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1503.