Nemesis
Albrecht Dürer(c. 1501)
National Gallery of Victoria
Melbourne, Australia
The figure of winged Nemesis – the goddess of retribution – was inspired by a poem by the Italian humanist Angelo Poliziano, who used the bridle to signify the need for restraint and the cup, reward. Nemesis balances on a sphere which symbolises the precariousness of fate. The detailed landscape below has been identified as the Tyrolese village of Chiusa, which Dürer evidently sketched on his first journey to Italy in 1494. Nemesis’s figure was constructed according to the ancient canon of human proportions expounded by the Roman theorist Vitruvius. While the relative sizes of the various body parts are as set out by Vitruvius, Dürer’s ample figure is not classically idealised, but rather exemplifies Northern types.
Text © National gallery of Victoria
- Title: Nemesis
- Creator: Albrecht Dürer
- Creator Lifespan: 21 May 1471 - 06 April 1528
- Creator Nationality: German
- Creator Death Place: Nuremberg, Germany
- Creator Birth Place: Nuremberg, Germany
- Date Created: (c. 1501)
- Physical Dimensions: 32.2 x 23.0 cm (Image)
- Type: Prints
- Rights: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Felton Bequest, 1956, © National Gallery of Victoria
- External Link: National Gallery of Victoria
- Medium: engraving
- Provenance: Collection of William Denholm Kennedy (1813–65), London, before 1865; Denholm Kennedy sale Christie's London, 10–11 July 1865 possibly no. 89; from where purchased by M. Holloway; collection of Ambroise Firmin-Didot (1797–1876) (Lugt 119); collection of Frédéric Engel-Gros (1843–1918) (see Lugt Supp. 849a), Chateau Ripaille, Thonon-les-Bains, France, until 1918; Engel-Gros Collection prints sale, Hôtel Drouot, 16 December 1921, no. 71; collection of Sir Thomas Barlow (1883–1964), Manchester; from whom purchased for the Felton Bequest, 1956.
- Catalogue raisonné: Bartsch 77
- Biography: Albrecht Dürer was one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, renowned for his exceptional artistic and intellectual abilities, and for his far-reaching influence upon contemporary, and successive, generations of artists. His life spanned late medieval, Renaissance and Reformation times, and the profound intellectual, religious and artistic changes that marked this period were reflected in his art and thinking. Dürer’s traditional medieval training was transformed by first-hand contact with the art of the Italian Renaissance, and he was responsible for introducing into Germany, through his art and theoretical writings, the forms and ideals of the new Italian art. While he was acclaimed as a painter, it was Dürer’s prints that secured his fame, and spread his stylistic, iconographic and technical innovations throughout Europe.
- Additional information: The National Gallery of Victoria has an internationally acclaimed Dürer collection. Numbering some five hundred engravings, woodcuts, books and one drawing, the collection of prints is virtually complete, lacking only three engravings that are known solely in unique impressions. The core of the Gallery’s holdings is the Sir Thomas Barlow collection, acquired through the Felton Bequest in 1956, which is renowned for the outstanding quality of its impressions and for the rarities it contains.
Get the app
Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more
