Dancing Peasant Couple Gm-00039701

Urs Graf (Swiss, about 1485–1527) Creating an interlocking figure eight with their bodies, two dancing peasants fill the page, with the male peasant obscuring his partner's head and pinching her buttock. Urs Graf showed them dancing upon a featureless strip of ground prominently signed and dated with a dynamic insignia of his initials overlaid with the Swiss dagger. Their forms merge at the top and widen to form a pyramid that emphasizes their lower bodies, muscular legs, and wide feet, conveying a powerful sense of energy. Graf's swift, incisive penwork emphasizes the then-commonplace notion that peasants were symbols of the cycles of nature: earthy, fertile, full of vital strength--and often bawdy.

Someone extensively pricked the drawing with holes that follow the outline of the figures and the back has been rubbed with black chalk. Scholars once thought that this pricking indicated that such drawings had been made as designs for prints, with the image transferred onto another surface by rubbing chalk dust through the holes. They now believe that another draftsman pricked the work much later in order to copy it.

High Quality Wood Framed Print using museum quality paper and archival inks with a white border or with cut mat for a contemporary look. Comes with Acrylite glazing and hanging hardware. These are Made in USA or Europe depending upon your location.

Stretched Canvas is stretched over 1.25" thick pine bars and printed on heavy cotton poly matte finish canvas. Comes with mounting brackets. These are Made in USA or Europe depending upon your location.

Giclee Prints are printed on 260gsm satin finish using the finest archival inks. Each print carries a white border around the perimeter. These are Made in USA or Europe depending upon your location.

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Artwork in this collection is from The J. Paul Getty Museum. Reproduction rights are reserved by the copyright owner and used under license by Archivea.