Masquerade Dance with Torches

c. 1517-1518

Albrecht Dürer

Associated Names
Albrecht Dürer

Artist, German, 1471 - 1528

This is a drawing of a group dance in a medieval or renaissance setting. In the center of the image, figures in period costumes partake in a formal dance on a checkered floor. The dancers are dressed in elaborate garments typical of the Renaissance era, with capes, patterned tunics, and feather-adorned hats. The background features an upper level where additional observers, dressed in similar ornate attire, peer over a balcony. Ornamentations and architectural details enrich the setting, giving it a sense of grandeur and nobility. The woodcut technique emphasizes the textures and details of the characters’ outfits and the decorating elements surrounding them.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to image): 22.7 x 25 cm (8 15/16 x 9 13/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.3683

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Meder, no. 250

  • Series Title

    Freydal

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], 1928; gift to NGA, 1943.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1931

  • Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Philadelphia, loan to permanent collection display of The Art of the Middle Ages, 1931, no cat.

1943

  • Selections from the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1943-1944, pp. 30-31, repro.

1948

  • J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville, KY, 1948, no cat.

1949

  • Selections from the Rosenwald Collection, Art Gallery of Toronto, 1949, no cat.

1953

  • Nuremberg and the German World, Los Angeles County Museum, 1953-1954, no cat.

1954

  • De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, and University of Arizona, Tuscon, AZ, 1954, no cat.

  • Early German Prints, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR, 1954, no cat.

1955

  • J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville, KY, 1955, no cat.

1969

  • Festivals and Fairs, Prints from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, NGA, 1969, no cat.

2012

  • Imperial Augsburg: Renaissance Prints and Drawings, 1475-1540, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 2012-2014, no. 78.

2019

  • The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2019-2020, no. 54.

Bibliography

1932

  • Meder, Joseph. Dürer-Katalog; ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustände, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen. Vienna: Verlag Gilhofer und Ranschburg, 1932. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.

2001

  • Schoch, Rainer, Mattihas Mende, and Anna Scherbaum. Albrecht Dürer: Das druckgraphische Werk. Munich, 2001: vol. 3: no. 272.5

Wikidata ID

Q18339710

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