The Prodigal Son
1497
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer spent his life in Nuremberg, a busy German city where artists traded prints like currency.
See the richer artist page1497
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Prodigal Son is a 1497 by Albrecht Dürer, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This drawing shows a man in tattered clothes kneeling in a muddy courtyard. He’s feeding a group of pigs with his bare hands, while the animals crowd around him. In the background, there are tall, steep-roofed buildings and a few distant figures, but they’re small and blurry. The man’s face looks tired and worn, and his clothes are loose and dirty. The pigs are scattered around him, some eating from a bowl on the ground. This scene is from a famous story about a son who returns home hungry and desperate. Next, look up Renaissance.
Albrecht Dürer spent his life in Nuremberg, a busy German city where artists traded prints like currency.
See the richer artist page
![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)
