The Men’s Bath
1496/97
Medium
Woodcut in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet, trimmed within block: 39.2 × 28.3 cm (15 7/16 × 11 3/16 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
197566
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Albrecht Dürer’s strikingly modern woodcut of men relaxing at an open-air bath boasts deep, dark ink and a warm, creamy paper tone suited to its celebration of naked flesh. This impression looks much the way it would have when it came off Dürer’s press around 1497. While others might have been posted on walls, perhaps at bathhouses, this particular Men’s Bath appears to have largely escaped handling until close to the present day. While ostensibly a genre scene, the print may protest the Nurembe...
About the Artist
Albrecht Dürer · 1471–1528
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) stands as the preeminent figure of the Northern Renaissance and arguably the most influential artist in the history of printmaking. Born in Nuremberg on May 21, 1471, and dying in the same city on April 6, 1528, Dürer revolutionized the status of the artist in Northern Europe, transforming printmaking from a commercial craft into an independent fine art and establishing ...