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The Sea Monster
Albrecht Dürer1493/1503
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Ann Arbor, United States
Details
- Title: The Sea Monster
- Creator: Albrecht Dürer
- Creator Lifespan: 1471/1528
- Creator Nationality: German
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Death Place: Nüremberg, Germany
- Creator Birth Place: Nüremberg, Germany
- Date Created: 1493/1503
- Location: Germany
- Physical Dimensions: w18.8 x h25.1 (work)
- Label Copy: In this enigmatic work, a bearded, antlered male figure with a lower body covered in scales carries on his back a reclining nude woman crowned with an elaborate headdress; she seems strangely unconcerned with her predicament as she looks back at her alarmed companions gesticulating on the opposite shore. Dürer may have based this print on a scene from one of the many tales from classical mythology describing a sea god or monster kidnapping a woman and spiriting her away to the depths of the ocean. The setting, however, appears to be Germany: a structure resembling the Nuremberg Castle is depicted in the background. This has led some scholars to look beyond classical mythology to sources like the German myth of the rape of the Langobard queen or a contemporary, sensational news story that claimed that a series of women on the Adriatic coast of Italy were being kidnapped by a sea monster. Regardless of its inspiration, the print remains a sexually charged work, imbued with fantastical images.
- Type: Print
- External Link: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1956-sl-1.74/1956_1.74.JPG?lasttype=boolean;lastview=thumbnail;resnum=1;sel9=ic_exact;size=20;sort=relevance;start=1;subview=detail;view=entry;rgn1=musart_an;select1=starts;q1=1956%2F1.74
- Medium: engraving
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