Focus on this artwork and discuss the Interpretation.
As with many of Dürer's engravings, the intended meaning or source is unclear; although it has been subject to wide scholarly analysis, no real consensus has emerged. Possible interpretations range from the four seasons and the four elements, to Aphrodite (represented here by the woman to the right wearing a myrtle wreath) and the Graces, the Three Fates, or more simply four witches or four girls in a brothel. The art historian Marcel Briton suggests that the work may not have any specific meaning, and is simply a portrait of four nudes, "the whim of a young artist annoyed by the puritanical conventionality of his fellow-citizens".Because Dürer did not title the work it has been given many titles over the centuries. When the painting was first described by Karel van Mander in 1604, he wrote that it contained "three or four nude women, looking just like the three Graces." Common titles have included Scene in a Brothel, Scene of Witchcraft, Venus and the Three Graces, The Seasons of the Year, The Four Temperaments, and Diana and Hecate Trivia.
Season Aphrodite Diana brothel four seasons the Graces engraving season Hecate Venus four elements Three Fates Witchcraft Brothel witches