1496
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Samson Killing the Lion is a 1496 by Albrecht Dürer, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This engraving shows a muscular man wrestling a lion. The lion is on its back, its mouth open wide, while the man leans over it, gripping its head. Behind them, a tree and a distant town with a tower sit under a cloudy sky. The man’s face looks calm, even as he fights the beast. The artist used sharp lines to show the lion’s fur and the man’s muscles, making them look almost three-dimensional. Look up chiaroscuro next to see how artists use light and shadow like this.
Albrecht Dürer spent his life in Nuremberg, a busy German city where artists traded prints like currency.
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