About this artwork
Albrecht Dürer’s Men’s Bath has been interpreted in many ways—from a humanist ode to Italian nudes to a group of portraits including three potential views of Dürer and one of his best friend, the rotund Willibald Pirckheimer. The waterline is only ankle-deep for the standing figures, while the seated pair in the foreground is more submerged; a Dürer look-alike controls the strategically placed pump. This large-scale woodcut was published shortly after a 1496 edict closed the bathhouses in Dürer’s hometown of Nuremberg, around the time of both an outbreak of syphilis and a drought. It may therefore be a protest against the edict, or perhaps a nostalgic look at idyllic bathing activities of days past.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Prints and Drawings
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Artist
- Albrecht Dürer
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Title
- The Men's Bath
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Place
- Germany (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- Made 1496–1497
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Medium
- Woodcut in black on buff laid paper
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Dimensions
- Image/sheet, trimmed within block: 38.3 × 27.8 cm (15 1/8 × 11 in.)
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Credit Line
- The Charles Deering Collection
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Reference Number
- 1927.2906
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/43940/manifest.json
Extended information about this artwork
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