Cleveland Museum of Art
The Little Fortune
Albrecht DürerLinkedCulture matchlcp-91cf98b472c5
- Date
- c. 1497
- Medium
- engraving
- Culture
- Germany, late 15th-early 16th Century
- Department
- Prints
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 135059
From LinkedCulture
Barely the size of a playing card, this engraving by Albrecht Dürer packs an entire philosophy into one precarious pose. Made around 1497, it shows Fortune balancing on a rolling sphere - one bare foot, a long staff for support, and a sprig of flowers raised in her hand. That sphere is the whole point: her gifts never hold still. Whether those flowers mean fickle love or a fate already written, Dürer's message is the same - destiny is never yours to keep.
Written by LinkedCulture for its video on this object. Machine-generated (claude-sonnet-4-6), not yet reviewed by a person. It is not part of the museum’s record.
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
With the help of a staff, Fortuna, the goddess of fortune or chance, balances on a sphere and holds a sprig of flowers in her left hand. In addition to representing her instability, the sphere suggests the worldly domain over which she influences at random. The flowers, traditionally identified as Eryngium, held aphrodisiac powers, suggesting the fickle nature of love. A more recent interpretation identifies them as Sternkraut, a plant that symbolized the idea that one’s fate has already been written. Both readings of the engraving, whether it regards love or life, inform the viewer that destiny is not of one’s own choosing.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.
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