The Great Fortune

In this print Dürer combines Nemesis, the classical goddess of retribution, whose goblet and bridle represent favor and castigation, with the traditional winged figure of Fortune standing on a globe. The landscape beneath the figure has been identified as a view of the South Tyrolean town on Chiusa (or Klausen), which Dürer presumably drew during his first journey to Venice in 1494-95. In his landscape, Dürer combines both a panoramic vastness and an amazing amount of identifiable detail. It looks remarkably like a view a modern traveler has from an airplane.