The Dying Bubble-Lord in the Lap of Madame Compagnie
Greed Tries Either to Overtake or to Outrun Fortune
Nemesis or The Great Fortune
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528), ca. 1502, engraving
Precariously balanced on an unsteady sphere, Albrecht Dürer’s nude female figure of Fortuna conveys a sense of the instability and unpredictability of fortune. The artist’s treatment of the subject derives from a Latin poem by the Italian Renaissance poet and humanist Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494), who describes fortune as the “power to crush the arrogant minds and triumphs of men and to confound their too ambitious plans.” With her bridle and cup, Dürer’s figure—in contrast to misogynistic portrayals of her by a later generation of artists—also embodies the virtues and rewards of temperance. These attributes are notably missing from comparable versions in The Great Mirror of Folly, restraint not being a hallmark of the 1720 bubbles.
: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs
The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries.
