Master ES: The garden of love (1465)

(Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA)

An engraving made by an unknown German artist with the notname 'master E.S.' The garden of love is a common theme in the art in which is is usually represented as an idyllic realm of music, feasting, and games where women inspired dedicated service from their admirers. This piece however is a more satirical version of the garden of love and satirizes the ideals of courtly love. Although the background shows the typical courtly scenes like a joust and two birds building a nest, the couples at the bottom are more interested in sexual lust: one man has his hand on the breasts of his female companion and the woman in the foreground is opening the coat of her male companion (a fool), showing his genitals. Engraving from 1465.