The Fight over the Trousers (c. 1495): Artwork and History

The Fight over the Trousers (c. 1495) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Israhel van Meckenem the Younger German, c. 1440/45-1503.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Here an enraged woman wielding a distaff as a weapon gains the upper hand over her husband. They are fighting over the trousers on the ground in front of them – that is, for control of the household. This scene is part of Israhel van Meckenem’s series of six prints of couples against a neutral background. It is the only one with a clear narrative and the only one in which the blank scrolls in the upper corners are replaced with imagery: the distaff, used to spin thread and emblematic of feminine pursuits, and a demon who encourages the fight. The pointed satire of domesticity in this print suggests that the other five images of couples may also be somewhat ironic.

Object facts

• Title: The Fight over the Trousers
• Date: c. 1495
• Artist attribution: Israhel van Meckenem the Younger German, c. 1440/45-1503
• Place of origin: Germany
• Medium: Engraving printed in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: 16.8 × 10.9 cm (6 5/8 × 4 5/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.850

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.