Beschreibung:

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) Four Naked Women (Bartsch 75; Meder, Hollstein 69; Schoch, Mende and Scherbaum 17) Engraving, 1497, on laid paper with watermark Gothic P, a fine Meder B impression, trimmed on or just inside the borderline, a horizontal fold with skillful touches of pen and ink running across the knees of the two women on the right, a tiny rust plughole on the upper right hip of the woman on the left, other minor defects Sheet 189 x 131mm. (7 1/2 x 5 2/8in.) (unframed) Fußnoten Provenance Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Lugt 1647) recto with their duplicate ink stamp verso. An unidentified collector's mark. Sotheby's, London, 12 July 1948, where acquired; thence by descent. This is an enigmatic engraving, whose intent and content have never been fully established through years of studies. Are the four women witches, or goddesses perhaps? They certainly seem engaged in a sort of ritual, maybe initiating the young woman in the middle to witchcraft, or evil magic. The small demon peeping through the open doorway on the left, the skull at the feet of the younger woman, and what looks like a fruit of mandrake (used in witches' potions) hanging above the group further emphasizes a ceremonial and devilish atmosphere. It was also made at a time when witch-hunting was rampant throughout the North, especially since the publication of Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger's witch-hunt manual Malleus Maleficarum in Germany in 1487. One can imagine that the context and the subject would have aroused the artist's imagination. As one of Dürer's earliest signed prints, and the only engraving bearing a date before 1503, it has also been said to record a definite event, or to have been intended for a publication.