Currently not on view
Men's Bathhouse,
ca. 1496
Albrecht Dürer, 1471–1528; born and died Nuremberg, Germany; active Venice, Italy, and Nuremburg
x1956-17
The Nuremburg-born painter Dürer gained fame and fortune throughout Europe and beyond through the dissemination of his technically superb and highly imaginative prints. In this large-scale woodcut, made shortly after his first trip to Italy (1494–95), he exploited the traditional setting of an outdoor bathhouse to demonstrate his skill at portraying the male body in varying ages, shapes, and poses, while rendering a wide range of textures—sagging flesh, gnarly wood, and knitted caps—with black-and-white wizardry. While some of the figures have been tentatively identified as the artist and his friends, scholarly consensus on the underlying—possibly allegorical—meaning of this enigmatic group remains elusive.
Information
Title
Men's Bathhouse
Dates
ca. 1496
Maker
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
sheet trimmed to block: 39.3 x 28.3 cm. (15 1/2 x 11 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund
Object Number
x1956-17
Place Made
Europe, Germany, Nuremburg
Inscription
Monogram, lower center: AD
Marks/Labels/Seals
Watermark of Augsburg chalice (M.180)
Reference Numbers
Bartsch 128; Dodgson 4; Hollstein 266; Meder 266; Schoch 107
Materials
Techniques
Subject
-
Adam vom Bartsch, "Volume 7," Le peintre graveur ... (Vienne: J. V. Degen, 1803-05).
, nos. 3–17, pp. 33–39 - Arthur Mayger Hind, Albrecht Dürer: his engravings and woodcuts (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1911)., p. 14
-
Campbell Dodgson, Albrecht Dürer (London: Medici Society, 1926).
, no. 61, p. 296 - Joseph Meder, Dürer-Katalog, ein handbuch über Albrecht Dürers stiche, radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren zustände, ausgaben und wasserzeichen (Vienna: Gilhofer & Rauschburg, 1932)., no. 3–18, p. 70 (illus.)
- Erwin Panofsky, Albrecht Dürer (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1945)., no. 1610
- Engravings and etchings (New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1956)., no. 27
- "Recent acquisitions," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 16, no. 1 (1957): p. 12-14., p. 13
- Craddock & Barnard, An illustrated catalogue of engravings and etchings (London: 1958)., no. 176
-
F.W.H. Hollstein, “Dürer,” German engravings, etchings, and woodcuts, ca. 1400-1700 (Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1962).
, no. 126 -
Rainer Schoch, Matthias Mende, and Anna Scherbaum, Albrecht Dürer: das druckgraphische Werk (München: Prestel, 2001).
, no. 187
