Lot Essay
The Ravisher is considered to be one of Drer's earliest prints. Panofsky believed The Great Courier to be the artist's first attempt at engraving, followed by this work and The Conversion of Saint Paul. The liveliness and expressiveness of form root The Ravisher strongly in the Northern tradition and show the influence of the Housebook Master (active circa 1470-1500) and Martin Schongauer (active circa 1450-1491). Drer's early works show him striving to blend the differing styles of these two artists, the former characterized by a free handling of the burin employing flicks and scratches, and the latter by a more formal, rhythmic technique.
Scenes of Death seizing his victims were common in German 15th century art. The banderole, which Drer left blank, was intended to contain an inscription such as one which appears on a clay plaque of the mid-fifteenth century, where a naked girl, confronted by Death, exclaims: 'I am young and pretty and will live for a long time without spirits of the underworld', to which Death replies, 'Alas you poor lump of clay, you must become what I am'.
Scenes of Death seizing his victims were common in German 15th century art. The banderole, which Drer left blank, was intended to contain an inscription such as one which appears on a clay plaque of the mid-fifteenth century, where a naked girl, confronted by Death, exclaims: 'I am young and pretty and will live for a long time without spirits of the underworld', to which Death replies, 'Alas you poor lump of clay, you must become what I am'.