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Nemesis

Albrecht Dürer

1502

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Renaissance Renaissance Allegory

Dominant colour

Nemesis is a 1502 by Albrecht Dürer, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Albrecht Dürer
When & what style?: 1502 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

A winged woman floats above a tiny village, holding a cup in one hand and a bridle in the other. The clouds beneath her feet look solid enough to stand on. Dürer mixed two Greek goddesses here—Nemesis, who punishes pride, and Fortuna, who hands out luck. The cup rewards the deserving; the bridle yanks the arrogant back in line. It’s a warning, but the village below doesn’t even notice. Look up more prints by Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528) to see how he turned myths into sharp, small pictures.

The story of this work

Overview

According to the Latin poem that inspired this engraving, Nemesis, the Greek goddess of retribution, had the “power to crush the arrogant minds and triumphs of men and to confound their too ambitious plans.” Ready to dispense judgment, Nemesis hovers formidably above the clouds that separate her from the insignificant town below. As in the poem, here Nemesis has her traditional attributes—a bridle for punishment and a goblet for reward—but Dürer conflated her with Fortuna, the goddess of fortune, who balances on a sphere to symbolize the unpredictable, topsy-turvy nature of fate.

Read the full account in the museum source.