A black-and-white etching of a nude, winged figure standing on a floating sphere, carrying draped cloth and a goblet aloft. Below, a detailed landscape of mountains, rivers, and towns unfolds.
A close-up of a black-and-white etching depicting village houses next to tall piles of long logs. A cut-off tree stump stands nearby. The scene is drawn with fine hatched lines.
A close-up of black-and-white finely inked feathers, rendered with precise hatched line work, creating texture and layered depth.
A black-and-white etching of a nude, winged figure standing on a floating sphere, carrying draped cloth and a goblet aloft. Below, a detailed landscape of mountains, rivers, and towns unfolds.
Previous image 1 2 3 4 5 / 5 Next image

Albrecht Dürer

Nemesis

Maker

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), designer

Title

Nemesis

Year

ca. 1501-1502

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

engraving

Supports

Dimensions

Plate: 33.2 x 23 cm (13 1/16 x 9 1/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Lettered with the artist's monogram, LR: "AD"

Watermark: High crown (Meder watermark no. 20)

Identification

State

ii/ii

Standard Reference Number

Meder 72 ii (a)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Membership Fund

Object Number

65.032

Type

Publications

  • Books

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650

Renaissance engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy that are composed entirely of lines. Artists began using this intaglio process in Europe as early as 1430. This captivating catalogue focuses on the height of the medium, from 1480 to 1650, when engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to engraving technique as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks in other media. The Brilliant Line follows these visual transformations and offers new insight into the special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers. The three essays discuss how engraving’s restrictive materials and the physical process of engraving informed its visual language; the context for the spread of particular engraving styles throughout Europe; and the interests, knowledge, and skills that Renaissance viewers applied when viewing and comparing engravings by style or school.

Exhibition History

Visions and Revisions
Feb 15, 2019 – Aug 04, 2019

Label copy

This engraving depicts the goddess of retribution, a bridle in one hand for restraining the wicked and a goblet in the other for rewarding the just. She exercises her unpredictable power over the world, symbolized by the sphere on which she balances and the landscape under the cloud pulled back like a veil. Dürer’s exquisite use of detail identifies the town as Chiusa, in northern Italy.

The stark division between the allegorical content at the top and the dense description of the landscape in the lower part is unusual, yet the print is no less coherent for it. Dürer brought the precise craftsmanship of the goldsmith to the task of pictorial composition, with Nemesis influencing generations of printmakers that followed him.

The Brilliant Line
Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650
Sep 18, 2009 – Jan 03, 2010

Label copy

This engraving rpresents a complex linear approach to texture, landscape, and space. Albrecht Dürer relies on an extremely refined and complicated variety of marks that juxtaposes the very near and the very far and creates nuanced, atmospheric transitions. Large engravings with this level of detail took Dürer months to complete and were intended to appeal to the growing number of collectors interested in acquiring engravings as works of art.

Based on a Latin poem written by the Italian humanist Angelo Poliziano (printed in Venice in 1498), Nemesis depicts the goddess of retribution; her goblet and bridle represent reward and castigation. This iconography is combined with that of Fortune, as indicated by the figure’s wings and her positioning on a globe.

The Landscape Tradition in Printmaking
Jan 19, 1990 – Apr 22, 1990
Prints and Drawings with a Classical Reference
Dec 15, 1965 – Jan 09, 1966

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), designer
Nemesis, ca. 1501-1502
Engraving on laid paper
Plate: 33.2 x 23 cm (13 1/16 x 9 1/16 inches)
Museum Membership Fund 65.032

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.