1513
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Knight, Death, and the Devil is a 1513 by Albrecht Dürer, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a knight on horseback riding through a dark valley. A horned devil lurks beside him, and Death, with snakes in its hair, holds an hourglass. The knight’s dog trots faithfully at his heels. This engraving was made when prints were still new—Dürer used fine lines to create deep shadows and textures. The skull on the ground hints that others didn’t make it. The knight keeps going, showing quiet courage. Look up *chiaroscuro*—how artists use light and dark to shape a scene.
In this tour de force engraving, considered one of his three greatest “masterworks,” Albrecht Dürer portrayed a mounted soldier who resolutely forges through a dark gorge, ignoring a horned devil in his path. Confronted by Death itself, crowned with snakes and holding an hourglass indicating mortality, the soldier and his faithful dog demonstrate the strength of righteousness required to stay upon the right path. The skull underfoot suggests that others have not been so resolute. Indeed, this road of life is full of obstacles, with the city on the hill accessible, it seems, only by way of…
The personification of Death in this image holds an hourglass whose sands are exactly half full, which may indicate a turning point in the rider's life choices.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Albrecht Dürer spent his life in Nuremberg, a busy German city where artists traded prints like currency.
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