Albrecht Dürer

The same quick-growing plant that represented the abundance of nature in the previous woodcut here represents lust and desire, as does the sword, which Dürer places rather unambiguously between the young man's legs. The gallant is walking with his beloved - a married woman - in the countryside. Both are oblivious to Death, who lurks behind a tree in the background, holding an hourglass above his head. This is a modern, moralized version of the early 15th century theme of the Garden of Love, a memento mori and a warning against adultery. It is a more elegant articulation of the ideas portrayed in his very first engraving, The Ravisher (lot 1). But the moralising tone is tinged with sadness that their love and beauty shall not last.