The Garden of Love (1480/90): Artwork and History

The Garden of Love (1480/90) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Master W. A. H. German, active c. 1480-90.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: The Garden of Love
• Date: 1480/90
• Artist attribution: Master W. A. H. German, active c. 1480-90
• Place of origin: Germany
• Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Sheet trimmed within platemark: 36.6 × 29.3 cm (14 7/16 × 11 9/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.820

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.