The Fight in the Forest

Hans Burgkmair I

National Gallery of Art

A confrontation between a man dressed in full armor and a second hairy, nude man twice his size is drawn with delicate black lines and hatching on tan-colored paper. These two men are at the center of this horizontal drawing, and trees, shrubs, rocky formations, and pebbles on the dirt ground create the setting. The armored man is to our left. He lunges forward and holds an oversized broadsword high over his helmeted head. To our right, the larger man is covered with wavy hair from head to foot. A thick, curly beard frames his scowling mouth, and he appears to wear a helmet made of bark or leaves. He also strides forward but holds up a wooden stick, really an almost in-tact trunk of a tree, to block the knight’s blow. The bodies of three people and a broken sword lie behind the wild man.