Cleveland Museum of Art
The Lady Riding and the Landsknecht
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
- 114743
From LinkedCulture
A soldier gazes up with a pleading touch while the noblewoman above him wears his own feathered military hat. That small detail is the key to this engraving by Albrecht Dürer, made around 1497 in Germany. Her position on horseback and her appropriation of his clothing quietly flip the expected power dynamic, turning a scene of courtly farewell into a study of who is really in charge. It is an early reminder that Dürer used the precision of print to hide sharp ideas inside beautiful images.
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
At first the subject of this early print appears to be simple courtly love; in it a noblewoman and infantryman share a private moment of farewell. However, a deeper reading of the image suggests underlying themes related to the power of women. Although the young man’s stance and weaponry establish his masculinity, the woman’s higher social status and physical position on horseback allude to her authority over him. Further, the hat she wears belongs to her lover’s costume, not to contemporary women’s fashion. Her appropriation of his clothing combined with his delicate touch and forlorn gaze creates an instance of role reversal, indicating that she holds the power in this romantic situation.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.
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