Peasant Family Going to Market, ca. 1470

About the Work

It seems, a farmer’s family is on its way to the town market with all kinds of produce, like eggs and poultry. Their village in the background on the right, with its church and draw well, is certainly modelled on reality. Its surroundings look friendly and fertile. In contrast, the landscape the family has to walk through is rough and barren. The craggy rocks in the middle ground seem to have sinister faces sprung from imagination. The engraving’s meaning to contemporary audiences is now unclear.