Minneapolis Institute of Art
The Dream
Albrecht DürerLinkedCulture matchlcp-840f7214ff34
- Date
- c. 1500
- Medium
- Engraving
- Department
- European Art
- Institution
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Object ID
- 47041
From LinkedCulture
A demon pumps a bellows directly into a sleeping man's ear while a nude Venus stands waiting just in front of him, and Albrecht Dürer fit all of that into a single small engraving made around 1500. The man slumps against a tiled ceramic stove, an apple warming beside it, a putto struggling onto stilts and a loose sphere of Fate tumbling nearby. Every detail carries the same warning, that idleness opens the door to temptation. This print proves Dürer could give engraving the same moral weight as any painted altarpiece.
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 Minneapolis Institute of Art record
As a man snoozes in downy comfort beside a warm ceramic oven, a demon blows wicked thoughts into his ear with a bellows. A proverb says, “Idleness is the devil’s pillow.” Temptation has arrived in the form of a classical Venus, whose gesture invites the sleeper’s attention. Two symbols of unsteadiness suggest the man is vulnerable: a putto attempting to hike himself onto a pair of stilts and the sphere of Fate that can go in any direction. An apple sits on the stove to remind us that the devil offers a warmed-over version of the original temptation in the Garden of Eden. Germany, Europe
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Bequest of Herschel V. Jones
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