The Peasants at Market

Discussion

FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

This quasi-market scene presents Dürer’s commentary on the social and economic role of women in the rural marketplace. In northern Europe during this period, lower class women possessed a certain amount of independence. They could move about the city buying and selling market goods to benefit the household. Here, a man peddles eggs from a large basket as the older woman listens shrewdly to his sales pitch. As indicated by the money purse at her feet, the hens in her hand, and the goods over her shoulder, it is the older woman and not the younger man who wields the position of power in this transaction.

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