Hercules at the crossroads. Engraving by Albrecht Durer

At the turn of the 1500s, Durer carried out a series of engravings on copper and on wood, in which the young master’s search was clearly defined.

These etchings, even in those cases when they contain religious, mythological or allegorical subjects, first of all represent genre scenes with a pronounced local character. But, just like in landscape watercolors, little things nowhere obscure the main thing.

Everywhere in the first place a person, and everything else plays the role of his environment. Here, for the first time, Dürer’s interest in a naked body is revealed, which he conveys with great knowledge, accurately and truthfully, choosing in the first place an ugly and characteristic.

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