The Cook and His Wife
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)
probably 1497
Medium
engraving
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Bequest of Mrs. Madeleine Hamill in memory of Lawrence Hamill
Accession Number
1949.95
Tags
male
About this artwork
Dürer’s curious engraving relates a comical story about the exposure of womanly deception. This housewife, identified by her clothing and the key and purse at her hip, had eaten an eel that her husband was saving. Although she denied it, her pet magpie, a bird associated with idle chatter, witnessed her deviousness and tattled. In revenge, she plucked the bird’s head bare and each time the magpie saw a bald man, the bird asked whether the man had also been telling the story of the eel. Even with...