He had completed his apprenticeship with Michael Wolgemut and his tour as a journeyman, and would marry Agnes Frey on 7 July 1494.

Dürer has in fact depicted himself in the act of offering a flowering spray identified by botanists as Eryngium amethystinum: its German name is "Mannestreue", meaning conjugal fidelity.

[5] It may also have religious significance; the same plant in outline form is inscribed in the gold ground of Dürer's painting Christ as the Man of Sorrows (1493–94).

The lines written beside the date in this painting reveal the philosophical and Christian intention of the work: Myj sach die gatAls es oben schtat.In other words (and liberally): My affairs follow the course allotted to them on high.

Marriage has in part determined his destiny – the Bridegroom puts his future life in the hands of God.