
Read the visual description
Printed with fine black lines on cream-white paper, a man wearing a knee-length tunic and reading from a piece of unfolded paper faces our right against a mostly blank background in this vertical engraving. The man's right shoulder, closer to us, is angled in a way that suggests his torso is turned slightly away from us even though his feet and face are shown in profile. A narrow wreath is almost lost in his dense curls, and he has a straight nose and prominent chin. His fur-lined tunic is belted low across his hips, and a dagger hangs from his belt. His pointed clog-like shoes seem to slip onto his feet like sandals, and he stands on a grassy field in an otherwise empty space. Creases in the paper he holds suggests it had been folded into nine sections.
National Gallery of Art · Print
A Poet Reading
Master of the Playing Cards
- Date
- 1430s
- Medium
- engraving on laid paper
- Dimensions
- sheet: 13.3 x 9 cm (5 1/4 x 3 9/16 in.) overall (external frame dimensions): 39.4 x 31.8 cm (15 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.)
- Classification
- Accession number
- 1999.26.1
- Credit line
- Gift of Ladislaus and Beatrix von Hoffmann
- Time span
- 1401 to 1500
- Department
- CG-E
Subjects and terms
- German
- occupation
- genre
- male
- figure
- engraving
- Playing card
Provenance
Grafen Maltzan, Militsch in Schlesien; (N.G. Stogdon, England, 1998); Ladislaus von Hoffmann, Washington, D.C., 1998; gift to NGA 1999.
Watermarks
none
NGA object ID 108125. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.