The Garden of Love
1480/90
Master W. A. H. German, active c. 1480-90
Germany
This elaborate engraving depicts nearly every aspect of courtly love and dates to the late medieval era, when the mating ritual was an accepted part of life among the nobility. The feast table in the walled courtyard boasts musical accompaniment, suggesting music truly is the food of love. Women drive the amorous games equally with men; a woman summarily dismisses a fools- cap-wearing suitor at the gate, while another daringly rides sidesaddle behind her lover on a twisting road. Men and women enjoy skinny-dipping in the moat at right, as if it were a fountain of youth.
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper