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A man wearing a full suit of armor rides a horse on a narrow path alongside a ghoulish, skeletal creature wrapped in snakes and a goat-headed, horned creature, all set again sheer, rocky outcroppings that nearly fill this vertical engraving. The scene is created with fine, black lines built up in hatching and crosshatching to make deep shadows, and is printed on cream-white paper. The armored man rides toward our left in profile with a long lance resting on his right shoulder, farther from us, and the other hand holding the muscular horse’s reins. The lance extends off both sides of the paper and is wrapped with a fox’s tail near the top. The man’s face is wrinkled with deep-set eyes staring straight ahead. He has a prominent, bumped nose and wide mouth closed in a line, with the corner we can see pulled slightly up. The visor of his helmet is pushed up but his eyes are shielded from the creatures beyond the horse by the flaring sides of his helmet. Armor covers every inch of his body, including his hands and feet, and a long sword hangs at his left hip, closer to us. Spanning the width of the composition, his muscular horse walks with one front and one back leg raised and its chin pulled back, also looking straight ahead. A long-haired dog runs in the same direction between the horse’s feet over a lizard scrambling in the opposite direction. Seen between the armored man’s body and his horse’s head, the ghoulish creature at the side of the dirt path wears a spiky crown entwined with a snake and another serpent winds across his shoulders. The creature looks toward the armored man with round, piercing eyes, a hole where the nose should be, and a nearly toothless, gaping maw. He has a long, lanky beard and hair, and he holds up an hourglass topped with a clock-like dial. This creature also rides a horse, whose head hangs close to the ground. To our right, the goat-headed creature looks toward the armored rider with round eyes and its long snout slightly open to show fangs and teeth. Horns curl down to its shoulders and one long, sharp horn, dotted with spikes at the base, curves up and back over the creature’s face. It holds a double-pronged, spear-like halberd like a walking stick. Immediately beyond the group, rocky outcroppings push into the sky. The branches of barren trees and bushes are outlined against the blank, white sky and their craggy roots poke out of the rock. High on a hill in the deep distance is a castle complex or town. A plaque near a human skull resting on a tree stump in the lower left corner has the date of the print and the artist's monogram. "S. 1513" is followed by a "D" between the long legs of a capital "A."

Albrecht Dürer

Knight, Death and Devil, 1513

Not on View

Medium

engraving on laid paper

Dimensions

sheet (trimmed to plate mark): 24.8 x 10.1 cm (9 3/4 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Rosenwald Collection

Catalogue Raisonné

Meder, no. 74, State a or before

Accession Number

1943.3.3519

Artists / Makers

Albrecht Dürer (artist) German, 1471 - 1528

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

in plate, bottom left, on tablet: S 1513 / AD [artist's monogram]; verso, center right, in graphite by a later hand: 98; verso, lower center, in graphite by a later hand: B. 98 D. 70; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: B . 98; verso, lower right, in graphite by a later hand: 410; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: 410; verso, bottom right, in graphite by a later hand: 58 [upside down]

Provenance

(sale, C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, May 7-9, 1928, lot 410); purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], Jenkintown, PA (Lugt 1760b and Lugt 1932d); gift to NGA, 1943.

Associated Names

Rosenwald, Lessing Julius

Exhibition History

1945: Prints from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, IN, 1945, no. 23.

1949: Goethe as a Print Lover: to Celebrate the Bicentennial of his Birth, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA, 1949, no catalogue.

1953: Nuremberg and the German World, 1460-1530: Prints and books from the Kress and Rosenwald Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1953.

1955: Miniatures and Prints from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1955.

1956: Selected Prints from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, City Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, 1956.

1957: Horse and Rider, Fort Worth Art Center, TX, 1957.

1960: Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya: Exhibition of Fine Prints, Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, CA, 1960-1961, no. 8, repro.

1960: Prints by Albrecht Dürer, University of Kansas Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS, 1960, no. 28.

1968: L'Incisione Europea dal XV al XX Secolo, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy, 1968. no. 95, repro.

1969: Symbols in Transformation: Iconographic Themes at the Time of the Reformation, Princeton University Art Museum, 1969, no. 73, repro.

1971: Prints by Albrecht Durer, Birmingham Museum of Art, 1971.

1974: Europe in Torment: 1450-1550, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, 1974, no. 44, repro.

1999: Religion and Politics: The Renaissance Print in Social Context, Marsh Art Gallery, Richmond, 1999, no. 63.

2007: Fabulous Journeys and Faraway Places: Travels on Paper, 1450 - 1700, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2007

Bibliography

1932: Meder, Joseph. Dürer-Katalog; ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustände, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen. Vienna: Verlag Gilhofer und Ranschburg, 1932. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.

1999: Johnson, Charles. Religion & Politics: The Renaissance Print in Social Context. Exh. cat. Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond, 1999: no. 63; illus., cover (p.1).

2001: Schoch, Rainer, Mattihas Mende, and Anna Scherbaum. Albrecht Dürer: Das druckgraphische Werk. Munich, 2001: vol. 1: no. 69.