The Dream of the Doctor (c. 1500): Art, History and Details

The Dream of the Doctor (c. 1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Scholars generally agree that this curious engraving represents the contemporary proverb "Idling is the pillow of the devil," a moral message against the sin of sloth. Here, a middle-aged scholar dozes before a warm stove. The devil hovers behind him and uses a fireplace bellows to kindle impure desires. Aroused by the devil’s sinful provocation, the scholar’s subconscious conjures Venus, an object of lustful temptation. Dürer’s image explores the realm of dreams and innermost thought in association with powerful female sexuality. Like many of his other engravings of this early period, Dürer uses obscure, moralistic stories to consider the female nude both creatively and intellectually. Although aimed at a primarily cultured male audience, Dürer presents Venus as a source of desire not only for the sinful idler, but for the viewer as well.

Object facts

• Title: The Dream of the Doctor
• Date: c. 1500
• Creator attribution: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)
• Culture: Germany, late 15th-early 16th Century
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Image: 19 x 12.2 cm (7 1/2 x 4 13/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1934.341

Collection credit

Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Francis, Henry. "Engravings by Albrect Dürer." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 22, no. 4 (April 1935): 59-64.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.