Albrecht Dürer — Peasant Couple Dancing (1514)

Engraved in 1514, this small plate is the companion piece to Dürer's Bagpiper: same year, same format, same monogram — one makes the music, the other dances to it.

The two figures are caught mid-step on a hatched slope of ground. The man, seen from behind, flings his left arm upward with the hand splayed open, his head turned sharply in profile, his hair standing on end. The woman swings round toward us, her skirts spinning out, a linen coif and headband framing a broad, absorbed face. Everything hanging from her belt is recorded exactly: the purse, the knife, the ring of keys. So are the slashed puffed sleeves, and the wide shoes, one of them lifting clear of the ground.

Dürer made a number of such peasant figures in these years, drawn from close observation rather than caricature. What they preserve, more than a type, is the weight and torque of two bodies actually in motion.

• Artist: Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)
• Date: 1514
• Original: engraving, approx. 11.8 × 7.5 cm (Bartsch 90)
• Museum-quality reproduction on fine art paper

Part of our medieval and Renaissance collection — see also our digital art book Knight, Death and the Devil.