In this spectacular heraldic composition from 1503, Dürer revisits the theme that had preoccupied him since his earliest engravings: love, lust and death. The patrician Nuremberg woman in Coat of Arms with a Skull is identified as such by her festive gown, while her ornate headdress signifies that she is a bride. She is embraced by a shaggy, long-haired wild man; a barbaric, bestial creature of medieval lore. As he caresses her head – his serpentine fingers entwining seamlessly with her braids – she looks down coquettishly, apparently enthralled by the dazzling splendour of the coat of arms he bears. At this moment, she remains unaware of the true function of her seducer: only the viewer can see the skull on the face of the wild man’s shield, revealing that he carries with him the promise of death.

According to Panofsky, this poignant and unsettling memento mori must be interpreted against the atmosphere of dread and anxiety that characterised its moment of production. In 1503, the artist purportedly experienced a series of bizarre and disturbings events in Nuremberg, including the appearance of a comet, a traditional omen of evil or doom, and an incident that Dürer called the ‘greatest portent I have ever seen’: a ‘blood rain’ that fell on many people in the city, staining their clothes with the sign of a cross. (Panofsky, The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer, p. 90). An outbreak of epidemic disease followed, and although it did not reach its height in Nuremberg until 1505, the artist had likely been afflicted by the illness in the year this subject was engraved. This supposition is supported by two contemporaneous drawings, which also reveal a preoccupation with suffering and mortality: a charcoal study of a bearded man, his expression animated by pain or anguish; and a gruesome depiction of the head of the Dead Christ. Presumably referring to both images, the latter is inscribed: “Die 2 angsicht hab ich uch erl(? ) / [aus erfurcht gemacht in meiner Kranckeit’’ (‘I produced these two countenances when I was ill’). (Illustrated below)

Perhaps above all, however, Coat of Arms with a Skull is a purposeful and exuberant demonstration of technical skill. Through his employment of conventional heraldic motifs, with their divergent material qualities – the helmet, scrollwork, shield, wings and the wild man as shield-bearer – the artist flaunts his incomparable abilities as an engraver. As Panofsky explains: ‘This masterly engraving … [preserves] much of the miniature-like delicacy characteristic of the Nemesis and the St. Eustace … [and yet recaptures] the toughness and definiteness of line which distinguish Dürer’s earlier engravings. There is no weakening in his sensibility for texture. The smooth but brittle ivory of the skull, the contrast between the polished steel of the helmet and the duller metal of the shield, the soft flesh of the girl and the shaggy limbs of the savage, the difference between feathers and pinions, the luscious foliage of the mantling—all this is keenly observed and tangibly rendered.’ (Panofsky, Dürer, p. 83). In the earliest and finest impressions of Coat of Arms with a Skull, such as the present example, these changeable surfaces and textures are described to full, and somewhat staggering, effect.