Dürer's "Männerbad": A Dionysian Mystery

Abstract

picture correctly; for the place is a public bathing establishment isolated from the outside world by a low wall in the foreground and a fence in the back. Within these precincts there are four bathers and two musicians. Each of the bathers is supplied with a particular attribute. The melancholy man on the left leans against a water tap, the fierce-looking fellow in the left foreground has in his hand a scraping knife. He is faced by a man who holds a flower; while the man sitting in the back -a distinctly phlegmatic type drinking from a mug-is the only one of the four whose allegiance to Dionysus is clear at first sight. The two musicians, very fittingly placed next to the drinker, seem intent upon luring to their side the melancholy man at the water tap who, true to the melancholy temperament, is susceptible to the attractions of music. In the background a young man looks in and seems to watch the proceedings with curiosity. We shall find later that he is the key figure to the whole story. The four bathers exhibit four different forms of purification. The two in the back believe in ablutions, though the phlegmatic man prefers the internal application to the external one. There is no evidence that his melancholy partner on the left does not really share his prejudice; for though he leans against the water tap he makes no effort to use it. His relation to that tap -or rather of that tap to him-is one of the 'problems' of the picture; for Diirer has indulged at this point in a robust pictorial and verbal pun. The German word for tap is Hahn (cock); and to make his meaning explicit, Diirer has not only placed the tap in the correct relation to the body of the man but has also decorated it with a little cock. The melancholy attitude of the bearer now assumes a new significance with regard to the drinker on the other side. It is one of the disabilities of melancholy men, due to their excessively dry constitution, that their digestive organs, including their bladders, are not as active as they desire: which tends to increase their sadness. The musicians who try to lure the sufferer to their side, seem to know the cure for his ailment. The purification which the melancholy patient craves can be produced by the methods of his phlegmatic opponent. The liquid which the one absorbs as wine might be released by the other as water : a very plain illustration of Systole and Diastole. A parallel argument applies to the two men in the front. As the man at the water tap seemed to contemplate (in the first reading) the merits of washing, so the man with the cleansing knife advocates with some ferocity the virtues of scratching. His opponent again prefers the internal to the external treatment. He is for inhaling the scent of a flower. The contrast is clear: the one believes in removing the dirt from one's skin, the other in absorbing the aroma of purity through the nose. Again Diastole as opposed to Systole. Though Dionysus is the god of purification and purging, one would not assume that these very profane demonstrations are to represent his sacred rites. The picture refers, however, to a text. It is based on a passage in Plato's Republic (Book V, 475 St.). In describing the young men who will not enter into a thorough study of philosophy but rest content with acquiring a superficial acquaintance with the different schools, Plato compares them to the type of youth who will go to the city Dionysiaca as well as to the country Dionysiaca, but do no more than just inquisitively look in. I would hesitate to claim that the young man looking in from the back at Diirer's scene is meant to be this Platonic youth watching the Dionysiaca, were it not for the fact that the landscape in the background is clearly divided into two halves, one city, the other country. We may infer from the arrangement of the figures before this background, that in Diirer's view, and also in the view of Pirckheimer who must