Albrecht Dürer
Since Vasari's time this engraving has been understood to depict a noble lady in love with her page. As Rainer Schoch has pointed out, however, this is not an anecdote from the chivalrous 15th Century, but very much a theme from Dürer's own time: love in the time of war. A soldier says goodbye to his lover as he goes off to battle. They gently touch and gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes. As a farewell gift, the lansquenet has given her his plumed hat.
This is clearly a secular and non mythological subject—one is tempted to call it a genre scene—and yet it is not without allegorical meaning. Like so many of Dürer's early prints, it is a meditation on the nature of love. Charming and sentimental as it is, The Lady on Horseback and the Lansquenet is also a satire on the power of women, for it is the woman who sits high on the horse, proudly sporting her lover's gift.
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