Coat of Arms with a Skull
1503
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1503
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a wild man with shaggy hair holding a fancy shield—right on it, a skull grins back at you. This wasn’t just decoration. Dürer packed the shield with symbols: the skull means death, the wild man stands for raw desire. It’s like a warning label from 1503—flirt all you want, but remember the end. If you like how he mixes love and death, look up *chiaroscuro*—the way he carves light and shadow to make the skull pop.
![Madonna and Child [obverse]](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/d7b8ebf05d22ebe5/thumb.webp)
![Lot and His Daughters [reverse]](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/b4ebf9b282faa17a/thumb.webp)
