Five Landsknechte and an Oriental Man on Horseback

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Dürer may have been the first printmaker to engrave a group of Landsknechte, a theme that proved exceedingly popular, as the adjoining prints by Urs Graf, Master M. Z., and Daniel Hopfer confirm. The Master M. Z. engraving may be the second earliest such image, and it borrows costuming and stances from this sheet. In a large, early woodcut seen nearby, Dürer popularized the knight and Landsknecht genre, highlighting the hierarchy between mounted cavalry and foot soldiers.

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