Ritter, Tod und Teufel (after A. Dürer)

This is the subject of a world famous engraving. And this painting could be an almost literal conversion in a colorful image of the black and white original work. But Dürer’s masterwork inspired also an essay by Jean Cau, and two poems by Jorge Luis Borges, all these works astonishing too, and both of them behind this painting. For Jean Cau, the knight in armor is a lonesome anti-historical hero, who remains faithful to his traditional values . Opposed to him, are the faceless uncountable dwarfs who dominate today’s world. For Jorge Luis Borges, who held Dürer’s print in his own studio, the knight is German, he will fear not Death, nor Devil. But a riddle is hidden in the painting itself: while Death has a more devilish appearance, with two prominent horns a devil, and the faithful hound still follows the weary knight, the Devil is excluded from the composition. As if Death was the knight’s only one opponent. The only adversary the painter has to face. As if the steep ridge between Good and Evil subsided, surviving his own death his only one concern.