I suppose common-sense urges that the object in the cat’s mouth must be a penis-shaped dildo, and cannot be a real, dismembered, erect penis (which, in any case, if dismembered, would presumably not remain erect!) — but then this is a story, and common-sense is not required! And…

There are, of course, many species of ‘allegorical hunt’ in late medieval and early modern art’, but the present hunt for fidelity in love seems to be a ‘Germanic’ motif which arose c.1400 but disappeared not long after 1600. The Lady sets out to hunt for Fidelity-in-Love with…

Yet another early modern German erotic metaphor — both with and without a fox. Here it seems possible to point to a particular print as the origin of the motif in the albums — a woodcut by Jost Amman in the Kunstliche wolgerissene new figuren non allerlai jag…

Not a motif I have noticed anywhere else but in the albums (but see last). The gentleman appears to be plucking one of the flower-women, so — in the Huber album version — the lady inquires, Worumb diesze Rosen? Bin Ich doch viell reiffer [Why these roses? I…

This satirical motif involves 4 standing characters in a row — from left to right, first the boy [Bube] who brings the wine, then the young woman who pours it (in the later prints, she is replaced by the landlord), then the man who drinks it off, and…

popular ‘folk’ means of rejuvenation include fountains [Jungbrunnen], furnaces, and mills. I’m just concentrating on mills here, especially the Altweibermuhle which rejuvenates old wives, but also the Narrenmuhle, into which fools are poured, ground & emerge as… fools! Perhaps taking the hint from Proverbs 27.22: Crush a fool…