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The Dream of the Doctor

Albrecht Dürer

1500

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Renaissance Renaissance Allegory

Dominant colour

The Dream of the Doctor is a 1500 by Albrecht Dürer, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Albrecht Dürer
When & what style?: 1500 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

A scholar naps in a cozy room, his head drooping over a book. Behind him, a devil blows hot air from a bellows, while a naked woman appears in a dream. This tiny engraving packs a moral warning: laziness lets bad thoughts creep in. The devil’s bellows is a clever touch—it shows how idle minds get filled with temptation. If you like how Dürer turns a proverb into a picture, look up more of his prints.

The story of this work

Overview

Scholars generally agree that this curious engraving represents the contemporary proverb "Idling is the pillow of the devil," a moral message against the sin of sloth. Here, a middle-aged scholar dozes before a warm stove. The devil hovers behind him and uses a fireplace bellows to kindle impure desires. Aroused by the devil’s sinful provocation, the scholar’s subconscious conjures Venus, an object of lustful temptation. Dürer’s image explores the realm of dreams and innermost thought in association with powerful female sexuality. Like many of his other engravings of this early period, Dürer…

Read the full account in the museum source.