Knight, Death, and the Devil

1513 · Print · 24.61 × 18.89 cm

Can I see it?

Not on view at present

Where is “Knight, Death, and the Devil” now? Collection: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Minneapolis, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked: 12 days ago
In this state since: Sep 25, 2026
Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

About the work

A confident knight rides his horse through forbidding terrain, passing Death, who is dressed in white and rides a broken-down ass. To the right stands the Devil, with a pig’s snout, curling and spiky horns, dragon wings, and cloven hooves. Though the image is rich in possibilities for interpretation, Albrecht Dürer referred to it simply as “Der Reiter, ” the horseman.

Dürer based the horse on ancient and Renaissance sculptures that he had seen during trips to Venice. Drawings related to the engraving reveal the difficulty the artist faced in his attempt to give the horse a convincing stride. Dürer disguised the original, awkward position of the horse’s right rear leg by transforming its engraved outlines into blades of grass.

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Details

Accession number: P.68.149

In the catalog

Prints Engraving Renaissance 16th century Germany

Sources

Minneapolis Institute of Art
Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — public domain

In the life of Albrecht Dürer

The whole life

1507–1528 · Workplace
Nuremberg
1511
Publishes the Great Passion and the Life of the Virgin
Dürer published two woodcut series as books, the Great Passion and the Life of the Virgin, with a second edition of the Apocalypse and the 37 woodcuts of the Little Passion. His post-Venetian woodcuts developed chiaroscuro modelling.
1512
Emperor Maximilian I becomes his chief patron
From 1512 Emperor Maximilian I was Dürer's chief patron. For him Dürer and his workshop produced the Triumphal Arch, a giant woodcut 295 × 357 cm printed from 192 blocks and modelled on the triumphal arches of ancient Rome.
3 January 1512
Nuremberg's privilege against forgeries
Nuremberg's city council granted Dürer a privilege for the sale of his prints, with penalties for anyone who forged them.
1514
Death of his mother
In the year of Melencolia I and St Jerome in His Study, the artist's mother, Barbara Holper, died.
1515
A life pension from the emperor
The perpetually cash-strapped Maximilian could not pay on time and offered to exempt the artist from city taxes, which the Nuremberg Council opposed. At Dürer's request the emperor granted him a life pension of 100 guilders a year from the sums Nuremberg paid into the imperial treasury.