Cleveland Museum of Art

Nemesis

Albrecht Dürer

Date

c. 1501–02

Medium

engraving

Culture

Germany, early 16th Century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

According to the Latin poem that inspired this engraving, Nemesis, the Greek goddess of retribution, had the “power to crush the arrogant minds and triumphs of men and to confound their too ambitious plans.” Ready to dispense judgment, Nemesis hovers formidably above the clouds that separate her from the insignificant town below. As in the poem, here Nemesis has her traditional attributes—a bridle for punishment and a goblet for reward—but Dürer conflated her with Fortuna, the goddess of fortune, who balances on a sphere to symbolize the unpredictable, topsy-turvy nature of fate.

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