311 - Albrecht Dürer (1471 - Nuremberg - 1528), Nemesis (The Great Fortune).

Albrecht Dürer (1471 - Nuremberg - 1528), Nemesis (The Great Fortune). Engraving on laid paper, watermark High Crown (Meder 20). (c. 1501). 33 x 23 cm (sheet). Bartsch 77; Meder 72 II a-b (of II f); Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 33 II a-b (of II f). A fine, delicate impression of Meder II a-b. Trimmed to the platemark, fractionally into the blank area at the upper edge. One of Dürer’s most important engravings, surpassed in scale and ambition only by 'Saint Eustace'. Nemesis, the Greek goddess of retribution, is shown in strict profile, her wings outstretched and drapery fluttering in the wind, standing upon a globe as she glides majestically above an Alpine landscape rendered in minute detail far below. In her hands she holds a bridle and a late Gothic, pear-shaped goblet, attributes symbolising her power to restrain and punish the proud and to reward the just. As Panofsky demonstrated, these attributes derive from Dürer’s knowledge of the poem 'Manto' by the Tuscan poet Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494), a literary source probably known to the artist through his friend and patron Willibald Pirckheimer. – Thinly laid down, presumably to support several fine tears and repairs, including a few small made-up paper losses in the blank areas of the subject. A short, flattened fold at Nemesis’s back, a black spot verso and a tiny brown spot in the river. Otherwise in good condition. Taxation: regelbesteuert (VAT: Regular Taxation).