The Little Fortune - Albrecht Dürer
Archival giclée
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Description
An early Renaissance engraving by Albrecht Dürer depicting the allegorical figure of Fortune balancing upon a sphere.
Albrecht Dürer, the pre-eminent figure of the German Renaissance, produced this engraving during the late 1490s. The work depicts a female figure, often identified as Fortuna, balancing precariously upon a sphere. Her posture is contrapposto, a technique Dürer mastered to convey movement and anatomical accuracy. She holds a long staff topped with a thistle, a plant often associated with earthly suffering or the prickliness of fate. Her hair flows loosely down her back, and a piece of drapery winds around her body, providing a sense of motion against the static sphere.
Dürer utilised the burin with precision to create the varied textures seen in the figure's skin, the metallic sheen of the sphere, and the delicate foliage of the thistle. The composition is stark, set against a plain background that focuses the viewer entirely on the allegorical subject. The sphere represents the instability of fortune, a common theme in European art of the period. By placing the figure in this unstable position, Dürer comments on the fickle nature of luck and the transient quality of human success.
This print demonstrates Dürer's early mastery of the engraving medium, which he elevated to a fine art form. His ability to render volume through cross-hatching and fine line work is evident here, particularly in the modelling of the figure's torso and legs. The monogram AD, located at the bottom centre, identifies the work as a product of his workshop. This piece remains a primary example of how Renaissance artists integrated classical allegorical motifs with the technical rigour of Northern European printmaking traditions. It is a study in balance, both in terms of the physical subject and the artist's control over the copper plate.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
The Little Fortune - Albrecht Dürer
Artist Biography
Albrecht Durer
He was born in Nuremberg, the son of a Hungarian goldsmith. He trained as a goldsmith himself before apprenticing with the painter and printmaker Michael Wolgemut. The metalwork training gave him the manual precision that made his prints extraordinary. Melencolia I, Knight, Death and the Devil, and Saint Jerome in His Study, all made between 1513 and 1514, are among the finest engravings ever produced. The density of cross-hatching, the control of tonal gradation, the rendering of fur, feathers, and stone: these are virtuoso performances in a medium that most artists treated as reproductive.
He drew a rhinoceros from a description and a sketch sent by letter. He had never seen one. Dürer's Rhinoceros (1515) is anatomically wrong in several respects (the animal has an extra horn and armour plating) but it remained the standard European image of a rhinoceros for three centuries.
He was one of the first artists to paint self-portraits as a primary subject. The Self-Portrait at Twenty-Eight (1500) shows him facing the viewer directly, with long hair and a fur coat, in a pose traditionally reserved for Christ. It was either an act of supreme confidence or deliberate blasphemy. Probably both.
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