The engraving is sometimes called the 'Large Fortune' to distinguish it from Dürer's small print of Fortune which he engraved in the 1490s (Hollstein 71); Dürer himself referred to it as 'Die Nemesis' in his Netherlands diary of 1521. The subject, as identified by Panofsky, comes from the Latin poem 'Manto' by the Italian poet and philosopher Angelo Poliziano (1454 - 1494) which was printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1498 and with which Dürer probably became acquainted through Pirckheimer. Nemesis, the classical goddess of retribution, whose goblet and bridle represent reward and castigation, is combined with the traditional winged figure of Fortune standing on a globe. The landscape beneath has been identified as a view of Chiusa in the southern Tyrol (Alto Adige) of which Dürer presumably had made a drawing, of which no record survives, during his journey to Italy in 1494-5 (see Strauss 1495/43).
The print was particularly popular with Dürer's contemporaries, and there are at least seven recorded copies of it (see Strauss, TIB, pp.172ff). It inspired numerous compositions throughout the sixteenth century, including works by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch and Urs Graf (see cat.no 179, pp.34-6 and fig.7).