The Dream of the Doctor (Q18338507)
Label from: English (en)
movement:
German Renaissance (Q2455000)
genre:
allegory (Q2839016)
artist:
Albrecht Dürer (Q5580)
collection:
National Gallery of Art (Q214867)
Prints in the National Gallery of Art (Q64946756)
Rosenwald Collection (Q62274660)
Chester Beatty Library (Q391976)
Städel Museum (Q163804)
Cleveland Museum of Art (Q657415)
Israel Museum (Q46815)
Petit Palais (Q820892)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Q160236)
Art Institute of Chicago (Q239303)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Q1641836)
Yale University Art Gallery (Q1568434)
Art Collection of the University Göttingen (Q1792610)
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Q653002)
Albertina (Q371908)
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Q1132918)
Rijksmuseum (Q190804)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (Q1129820)
location:
National Gallery of Art (Q214867)
Chester Beatty Library (Q391976)
Cleveland Museum of Art (Q657415)
Israel Museum (Q46815)
country of origin:
Germany (Q183)
location of final assembly:
Nuremberg (Q2090)
fabrication method:
copper engraving technique (Q4287629)
instance of:
copper engraving print (Q18887969)
print (Q11060274)
The Met object ID:
391045
ARTIC artwork ID:
43233
LACMA ID:
234018
National Gallery of Art artwork ID:
6599
Google Arts & Culture asset ID:
bgEh1TK0T35m0g
catalog URL: https://clevelandart.org/art/1934.341
information from the National Gallery of Art catalog
description: Scholars generally agree that this curious engraving represents the contemporary proverb "Idling is the pillow of the devil," a moral message against the sin of sloth. Here, a middle-aged scholar dozes before a warm stove. The devil hovers behind him and uses a fireplace bellows to kindle impure desires. Aroused by the devil’s sinful provocation, the scholar’s subconscious conjures Venus, an object of lustful temptation. Dürer’s image explores the realm of dreams and innermost thought in association with powerful female sexuality. Like many of his other engravings of this early period, Dürer uses obscure, moralistic stories to consider the female nude both creatively and intellectually. Although aimed at a primarily cultured male audience, Dürer presents Venus as a source of desire not only for the sinful idler, but for the viewer as well.
This tool must be connected with Wikidata to work.