Knight, Death, and the Devil

Dürer referred to this engraving as Der Reuther (The Horseman) in the diary of his trip to the Netherlands in the early 1520s, but efforts to identify the scene as a religious or moralizing allegory have continued since the second half of the 16th century. Today it is usually understood as a representation of a Christian knight traversing a perilous landscape populated by the ghastly decaying figure of death, who holds an hourglass, and a demonic animal representing the devil at the horse’s hindquarters. The knight’s steadfast gaze forward suggests that he will arrive safely at the stronghold depicted on the mountain above the forest.

This plate is one of three Dürer created that have been called his Meisterstiche (master prints). Recognized as paragons of excellence in printmaking, as well as demonstrations of Dürer’s complex imagination and visual intellect, the Meisterstiche represent his highest achievement as an engraver.