2-745-030 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Men's Bath House, c. 1496-1497. The Men’s Bath House could be a simple genre scene or be interpreted as an allegory. The bathers could represent the four temperaments, each of whom is undergoing an appropriate purgative treatment: for melancholic gloom, the figure leaning on the post at the left listens to music; for phlegmatic sluggishness, the figure at the right drinks wine; for choleric cruelty, the figure in the left foreground will rub himself with a scraping knife; and for sanguine sensuality, the figure in the right foreground inhales the fragrance of a flower. Dürer produced many large woodcuts in the 1490s that had striking pictorial effects. Several of these are secular in content, reflecting a growing public interest in nonreligious subjects. A bath house was a fairly common image at the time but Dürer has treated the scene with great originality. He represented the male figure at different ages and in contrasting positions, a theme with which he was then preoccupied. The outdoor setting is unusual and allows for a landscape background which adds a sense of deep space.