Elizabeth A. Garner, All Rights Reserved. This motif about illicit love was one of the most popular in the Renaissance and often depicted by artists. A bachelor is secretly trysting with a married woman far away from peering eyes.
The ostrich feather he is wearing in his hat is a sign of his bachelor status. Behind the tree, unnoticed by the lovers, Death is holding up an hourglass.
The picture can be interpreted as a moralizing metaphor for the transitoriness of love and sensuality. But when I found the coded message, I knew everyone was wrong about the real meaning of this print. Why would anyone spend good money for that?
No, there was a much better message in this print. One that would make everyone want to buy this print. Thus we definitely have a depiction of a married woman trysting with a bachelor. This headdress has been clearly identified as a Nuremberg headdress, indicating the woman is from Nuremberg. Everyone who looked at this print would know that. The City of Nuremberg regulated clothing in every social class and according to Nuremberg law, this dress would have been understood as illegal and scandalous by customers.
The Stromeyer family was one of the richest, oldest, and most politically powerful families of the Nuremberg. While Johannes was out of the country, studying law in Italy, Barbara broke her betrothal to him, and married Sigismund Stromeyer zur goldenen Rose, because Sigismund was a better catch.
