“MASTER PRINTS”

Three copperplate engravings by Dürer, Knight, Death and the Devil, Saint Jerome in His Study and Melencolia I are since times immemorial known as Master prints. They do not compose a cycle but there is a link between them: they concentrate all the views of Albrecht Dürer and of his contemporaries on the spiritual life of a human being. There were many attempts to unite these three engravings into one cycle. Nowadays, the researchers no longer support the idea despite the fact that all three master prints have something in common.

The first sheet symbolizes an active position in life, the second symbolizes the harmony and a self-forgetful dedication to the science, the third one – a creative attempt to understand the secrets of nature.