The Promenade
Original title: The Promenade
kurzbeschreibung
Albrecht Dürer made this engraving, The Promenade, around 1498, showing a couple in the dress of their day walking through a landscape. The print measures 19.5 × 12.1 cm and is trimmed to the plate edge.
Description
A man and a woman turn toward each other. He wears a hat with a large feather, a jacket slung over his arm, hose and boots; a dagger handle sticks out at his side. She has a pointed hat with fine patterning and a long gown with tight sleeves and a full, spreading skirt. To the woman's right, a thick tree trunk partly hides another figure. In the left foreground a large flower blooms, while the land drops away behind them.
Context
The engraving belongs to Dürer's Nuremberg years around 1498. The motif of an elegant couple was common in Upper Rhenish art of the time, as related images attest. This is the first of two printed states. The sheet is often seen as an early sign of Dürer's engagement with profane genre imagery.
Impact
The elaborate clothing and the intimate turn of the two figures make them seem at once present and removed against the wide landscape. The precise linework creates a calm, almost narrative mood that draws the viewer into the image.
Technique
For this engraving, Dürer incised the lines into the copper plate with a burin. Fine hatching and the precise rendering of fabrics and landscape characterize his early printed graphic. The impression is from the first state of the plate.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)