JOHN BERGER

Sa
ton mnahateagsnienenitansraetys
sen
*
 wi
Mes ca ‘ Ae
Albrecht Durer
Watercolours and Drawings

with an essay by
John Berger

&.

KOLN LISBOA LONDON NEW YORK PARIS TOKYO

 Front cover:
Young Hare, 1502
Watercolour and opaque with white
highlighting on paper, 25.1 x 22.6 cm
Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina

Back cover:
Praying Hands, 1508
Ink drawing on blue paper, 29 x 19.7 cm
Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina

Page |:
Self-Portrait with a Bandage, undated
Ink drawing on paper, 20.4 x 20.8 cm
Erlangen, Graphische Sammlung der Universitats-
bibliothek Erlangen-Niirnberg

Page 2:
Nude Self-Portrait, c. 1500
Ink and brush drawing, with white highlighting,
on green primed paper, 29.1 x 15.3 cm
Weimar, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar

Page 5:
Girl Reading (detail), 1501
Pen and dark brown ink, 16.1 x 18.2 cm
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen

This book was printed on 100% chlorine-free

bleached paper in accordance with the TCF standard.

© 1994 Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH

Hohenzollernring 53, D-50672 Koln
Design: Angelika Muthesius, Cologne
For the essay “Diirer: a portrait of the artist”
© 1985 John Berger
© 1985 Chatto & Windus, London, for the English edition, excluding US and Canada (from: “The White Bird”)
© 1986 Random House, Inc., New York, for the US, its dependencies, the Philippine Republic and Canada (from: “The
Sense of Sight” by John Berger. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc.)
Photo credits: Martin Biihler, Basle (p. 26), Elke Walford, Hamburg (p. 31), © Photo R.M.N, Paris (pp. 27, 38, 67)
Captions and biography: Klaus Ahrens, Hamburg
English translation (captions and biography): Michael Hulse, Cologne

Printed in Portugal
ISBN 3-8228-8575-4
GB
 The work of Albrecht Diirer was a great summation of
the achievement of art as the Middle Ages drew to a close.
To this day, the mastery expressed in his precision
drawing and sensuous instinct for colour has retained its
fascination.
Direr:
a portrait of the artist

e are more than five hundred years away from Diirer’s

birth. (He was born on 21st May 1471, in Nuremberg.)
Those five hundred years may seem long or short, ac-
cording to one’s viewpoint or mood. When they seem short, it
appears to be possible to understand Diirer and an imaginary con-
versation with him becomes feasible. When they seein long the
world he lived in and his consciousness of it appear so remote that
no dialogue is possible.
Direr was the first painter to be obsessed by his own image. No
other before him made so many self-portraits. Among his earliest
works is a silverpoint drawing of himself aged thirteen. The draw-
ing demonstrates that he was a prodigy — and that he found his own
appearance startling and unforgettable. One of the things that
made it startling was probably his awareness of his own genius.
All his self-portraits reveal pride. It is as though one of the ele-
ments of the masterpiece which he intends each time to create is Self-Portrait at the Age of Thirteen,
the look of genius that he is observing in his own eyes. In this, his 1484. Silverpoint drawing on primed
paper, 27.5 x 19.6 cm. Vienna,
self-portraits are the antithesis of Rembrandt’s.
Graphische Sammlung Albertina. It
Why does a man paint himself? Among many motives, one is
is inscribed by the artist at top right:
the same as that which prompts any man to have his portrait “Dz Hhab jch aws eim Spigell nach/
painted. It is to produce evidence, which will probably outlive mir selbs kunterfet jm 1484 Jar / do
him, that he once existed. His look will remain, and the double ich noch ein kint was / Albrecht
meaning of the word “look” — signifying both his appearance and Diirer”.

his gaze — suggests the mystery or enigma which is contained in The words mean: “My ‘Konterfei’
that thought. His look interrogates us who stand before the por- (cf. John Berger’s essay, p. 12)
trait, trying to imagine the artist’s life. drawn from a mirror in the year
As I recall these two self-portraits of Diirer, one in Madrid and 1484, when I was still a child”, and
eloquently reveal the young Diirer’s
the other in Munich, I am aware of being — along with thousands
pride. When he drew what was in
of others — the imaginary spectator whose interest Diirer assumed fact one of the earliest self-portraits
about 485 years ago. Yet at the same time I ask myself how many in northern Europe, he had recently
of the words I am writing could have conveyed their present been apprenticed to his father. Diirer
meaning to Diirer. We approach so close to his face and expression gave greater attention to the self-por-
that it is hard to believe that a large part of his experience must trait than any of his contemporaries.
Portrait of the Artist's Father, escape us. Placing Diirer historically is not the same thing as re-
c. 1484-1486. Silverpoint drawing cognizing his own experience. It seems to me important to point
on primed paper, 28.4 x 21.2 cm.
this out in the face of so many complacent assumptions of con-
Vienna, Graphische Sammlung
tinuity between his time and ours. Complacent because the more
Albertina.
this so-called continuity is emphasized, the more we tend, in a
The artist’s father and first teacher,
strange way, to congratulate ourselves on his genius.
Albrecht Diirer the elder, was a poor
Two years separate the two paintings which so obviously depict
goldsmith who had moved from
Hungary to Nuremberg, where he
the same man in extremely different frames of mind. The second
had to support a family of twenty. portrait, now in the Prado Museum, Madrid, shows the painter,
The young Albrecht’s portrait, done aged twenty-seven, dressed like a Venetian courtier. He looks con-
during his apprentice years, shows a fident, proud, almost princely. There is perhaps a slight over-em-
careworn, perhaps embittered man phasis on his being dressed up, suggested by, for example, his
holding a piece crafted by himself.
gloved hands. The expression of his eyes is a little at odds with the
debonair cap on his head. It may be that the portrait half-confesses
that Diirer is dressing up for a part, that he aspires to a new role.
He painted the picture four years after his first visit to Italy. During
this visit he not only met Giovanni Bellini and discovered Venetian
painting; he also came to realize for the first time how inde-
pendent-minded and socially honoured painters could be. His
Venetian costume and the landscape of the Alps seen through the
window surely indicate that the painting refers back to his experi-
ence of Venice as a young man. Interpreted into absurdly crude
terms, the painting looks as though it is saying: “In Venice I took
the measure of my own worth, and here in Germany I expect this
worth to be recognized.” Since his return, he had begun to receive
important commissions from Frederick the Wise, the Elector of
Saxony. Later he would work for the Emperor Maximilian.
The portrait in Munich was painted in 1500. The painting shows
the artist in a sombre coat against a dark background. The pose,
his hand which holds his coat together, the way his hair is ar-
ranged, the expression — or rather the holy lack of it — on his face
all suggest, according to the pictorial conventions of the time, a
portrait head of Christ. And although it cannot be proved,
it seems likely that Diirer intended such a comparison,
or at least that he wanted it to cross the spectator’s
mind.
His intention must have been far from being blas-
phemous. He was devoutly religious and although, in
certain ways, he shared the Renaissance attitude to-
wards science and reason, his religion was of a tradi-
tional kind. Later in his life he admired Luther morally
and intellectually, but was himself incapable of breaking with the Portrait of the Artist's Mother Bar-
Catholic Church. The picture cannot be saying: “I see myself as bara, née Holper, undated. Charcoal
drawing on paper, 42.1 x 30.3 cm.
Christ.” It must be saying: “I aspire through the suffering I know
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin —
to the imitation of Christ.”
PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, Kupfer-
Yet, as with the other portrait, there is a theatrical element. In stichkabinett.
none of his self-portraits, apparently, could Diirer accept himself
Diirer did this portrait of his mother
as he was. The ambition to be something other or more than him-
shortly before she died. This study
self always intervened. The only consistent record of himself he of a 62-year-old woman, on whom a
could accept was the monogram with which, unlike any previous life of privations in the late Middle
artist, he signed almost everything he produced. When he looked Ages has left its marks, is one of the
at himself in the mirror he was always fascinated by the possible most penetrating portraits in the his-
selves he saw there; sometimes the vision, as in the Madrid por- tory of art.
trait, was extravagant, sometimes, as in the Munich portrait, it was
full of foreboding.
What can explain the striking difference between the two paint-
ings? In the year 1500 thousands of people in southern Germany
believed that the world was just about to end. There was famine,
plague and the new scourge of syphilis. The social conflicts, which
were soon to lead to the Peasants’ War, were intensifying. Crowds
of labourers and peasants left their homes and became nomads
searching for food, revenge — and salvation on the day on which
the wrath of God would rain fire upon the earth, the sun would go
out, and the heavens would be rolled up and put away like a manu-
script.
Diirer, who throughout his whole life was preoccupied by the
thought of approaching death, shared in the general terror. It
was at this time that he made for a relatively wide, popular
audience his first important series of woodcuts, and the theme
of this series was the Apocalypse.
The style of these engravings, not to mention the urgency of
their message, is a further demonstration of how far away we
now are from Diirer. According to our categories, their style
looks incongruously and simultaneously Gothic, Renaissance,
and Baroque. We see it historically bridging a century. For —
Diirer, as the end of history approached and as the Renais-
sance dream of Beauty, such as he had dreamt in Venice,
receded, the style of these woodcuts must have been as
instantaneous to that moment and as natural as the sound
of his own voice.
I doubt, however, whether any specific event can ex-
plain the difference between the two self-portraits. They
 arevus OnIGits
A Uberturs
Tpnand aie preprays frecthin.
d !
get coloriburs squats
NX,
Page 10: Self-Portrait with Land- might have been painted in the same month of the same year; they
scape, 1498. Oil on panel, are complementary to one another; together they form a kind of
52 x 41 cm. Madrid, Museo Nacio- archway standing before Diirer’s later works. They suggest the
nal del Prado. (Dated 1498, with the
dilemma, the area of self-questioning, within which he worked as
artist’s monogram, below the win-
dow, and inscribed: “This I painted an artist.
after my own person /aged twenty-six Diirer’s father was a Hungarian goldsmith who settled in the
years / Albrecht Diirer’’) trading centre of Nuremberg. As the trade then demanded, he was
a competent draughtsman and engraver. But in his attitudes and
Page 11: Self-Portrait in a Fur Coat,
1500. Oil on limewood, 67 x 49 cm. bearing he was a medieval craftsman. All he had to ask himself
Munich, Alte Pinakothek. (Inscribed: concerning his work was “How?” No other questions posed them-
“Thus I, / Albrecht Dtirer of Nurem- selves for him.
berg, have painted myself in fast By the time he was twenty-three years old his son had become
paint at the age of 28 years’) the painter in Europe who was furthest removed from the men-
tality of the medieval craftsman. He believed that the artist must
discover the secrets of the universe in order to achieve Beauty. The
first question in terms of art — and in terms of actually travelling
(he travelled whenever he could) — was “Whither?” Diirrer could
never have achieved this sense of independence and initiative
without going to Italy. But, paradoxically, he then became more
independent than any Italian painter, precisely because he was an
outsider without a modern tradition — the German tradition, until
he changed it, belonged to the past. He was the first, one-man,
avant-garde.
It is this independence which is expressed in the Madrid por-
trait. The fact that he does not embrace this independence com-
pletely, that it is like a costume which he tries on, is perhaps
explained by the fact that he was, after all, his father’s son. His
father’s death in 1502 affected him greatly; he was deeply at-
\ tached to him. Did he think of his difference from his father
as something inevitable and ordained, or as a question of his
own free choice, of which he could not be absolutely sure?
At different times probably both. The Madrid portrait in-
cludes the slight element of doubt.
His independence, combined with the manner of his art,
must have given Diirer an unusual sense of power. His art came
closer to recreating nature than that of any artist before him. His
ability to depict an object must have seemed — as it can still seem
today (think of the watercolour drawings of flowers and animals)
— miraculous. He used to speak of his portraits as ““Konterfei”, a
word which emphasizes the process of “making exactly like”.
Was his way of depicting, of creating again what he saw before
him or in his dreams, in some way analogous to the process by
which God was said to have created the world and all that was
in it? Perhaps that question occurred to him. If so, it was not a
sense of his own virtue which made him compare himself with
the godhead, but his awareness of what appeared to be his own
creativity. Yet despite this creativity, he was condemned to live
as a man in a world full of suffering, a world against which
his creative power was finally of no avail. His self-portrait
as Christ is the portrait of a creator on the wrong side of
creation, a creator who has played no part in creating himself.
Diirer’s independence as an artist was sometimes incom-
patible with his half-medieval religious faith. These two self-
portraits express the terms of this incompatibility. But to say this
is to make a very abstract statement. We still do not enter Diirer’s
experience. He travelled six days once in a small boat to examine,
like a scientist, the carcass of a whale. At the same time, he be-
lieved in the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He considered Luther
to be “God’s instrument’. How did he concretely ask, how did he
really answer, as he gazed at himself in the mirror, the question
which his painted face hints at as we stare into it, the question Self-Portrait, the Left Hand ofthe
which at its simplest is: “Of what am I the instrument?” Artist, a Pillow, c. 1493. Ink drawing
on paper, 27.6 x 20.2 cm. Private col-
lection.
John Berger
The three separate images of the
young artist, his hand, and a pillow
add up to an unusually intimate por-
trait. The hand contains an image of
female genitals.

Opposite: “My dear Agnes * c. 1494.

Ink drawing (bistre) on white paper,
15.6 x 9.8 cm. Vienna, Graphische
Sammlung Albertina.

In 1494, after his apprentice and jour-

neyman years, Diirer married Agnes,
a bride chosen by his father, daugh-
ter of a wealthy merchant named
Frey, and drew this economical por-
ll trait of her.
 Western Nuremberg, undated. Water-
colour and opaque on paper, 16.3 x
34.4 cm. Lost (since 1945); formerly
Bremen, Kunsthalle Bremen. (In-
scribed “ndrnperg” in the centre, top,
with the monogram added by an-
The Mills on the River Pegnitz, other hand.)

1498. Watercolour and opaque on Diirer painted a great many studies

paper, 25.1 x 36.7 cm. Paris, Biblio- of his home town, Nuremberg, but
theque Nationale, Cabinet des Es- they almost invariably show the out-
tampes. skirts, as in this study in greens,
Diirer frequently returned to the sub- browns and greys of the area around
ject of the mills outside Nuremberg’s the Spittler gate and ditch.
Hall gate. This version of 1498, the
year of his first great success with
the Apocalypse woodcuts, is con-
sidered his most important water-
colour.

14
Panny

Below: The Church and Cemetery of

St. John, Nuremberg, 1494. Water-
colour and opaque on paper,
29 x 42.3 cm. Lost (since 1945); for-
merly Bremen, Kunsthalle Bremen.

This watercolour includes St. John’s

infirmary and the cemetery chapel.
When the artist died in 1528, he was
himself buried in this churchyard.

15
 The Wire-Drawing Mill, undated.
Watercolour and opaque on paper,
28.6 x 42.2 cm. Berlin, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin — PreuBischer Kul-
turbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett. (In-
scribed: “wire-drawing mill’)

This wire-drawing mill outside Nu-

remberg, and the mills on the other
bank of the Pegnitz, were the medi-
eval city’s first industrial complex.
Diirer’s naturalist colours here were
achieved by subtle use of wash tech-
nique, working painted areas with a
soft brush while they were still wet.
Scholars disagree on the date; some
assign the drawing to 1489/90,
others to 1494, the year Diirer re-
turned from his journeying and mar-
ried Agnes Frey.

16
ws

17
 ee
Hage y heme tik
CRS Seng
fy Bacweti Nagi tes SPIES

Opposite: Nuremberg Woman

Dressed for the Dance, 1500. Ink
drawing on paper touched in with
watercolour, 32.5 x 21.8 cm. Vienna,
Graphische Sammlung Albertina.

Nuremberg Woman Dressed for

Church, 1500. Brush drawing
touched in with watercolour,
31.7 x 17.2 cm. London, The British
Museum. (Inscribed at top by
Direr: “Think of me in Thy realm
1500 / this is how people dress for
church in Nuremberg”)

The model was the artist’s wife,

Agnes.

Nuremberg Woman in Household

Attire, undated. Ink drawing on
paper touched in with watercolour,
28.4 x 13 cm. Milan, Biblioteca
Ambrosiana.

18
i

19
 A Lake Bordered by Pine Trees,
c. 1496. Watercolour and opaque
on paper, 26.2 x 36.5 cm. London, -
The British Museum.

Study of a Spruce (de-

tail), undated. Water-
colour and opaque on
paper, 29.5 x 19.6 cm.
London, The British
Museum.

20
HoRRR Os :iiaecanrcaant
a
 Landscape near Segonzano in the
Cembra Valley, c. 1494. Watercolour
on paper, 21 x 31.2 cm. Oxford, Ash-
molean Museum. (Inscribed at top
right: “Italian mountains’)

Shortly after marrying in 1494,

Diirer fled the plague for the first
time, going to Italy. He took his time
over the return journey, doing this
muted green and blue watercolour of
the mountains of the Val di Cembra,
north of Trento.

LZ;
Innsbruck Seen from the North
across the River Inn, undated. Water-
colour on paper, 12.7 x 18.7 cm.
Vienna, Graphische Sammlung
Albertina.

After crossing the Brenner Pass on

his return from Italy in spring 1495,
Diirer paused in Innsbruck and drew Page 24: The Courtyard of Innsbruck
the town’s picturesque towers and Castle (Cloudless), undated.
battlements from the river side. Un- Watercolour drawing on paper,
usually at that date, he was clearly in- 36.8 x 27 cm. Vienna, Graphische
terested in the reflections in the Sammlung Albertina.
water — though his success in render-
ing them was small. It is not, on the Page 25: The Courtyard of Innsbruck
whole, a skilful watercolour: Diirer’s Castle (Cloudy), undated.
perspective repeatedly gets out of Watercolour drawing on paper,
control, and he changes colours and 33.5 x 26.7 cm. Vienna, Graphische
style more than once. Sammlung Albertina.

23
Serene ea
 Venetian Woman, Profile and Back
Views, c. 1495. Ink drawing on
paper, 29 x 17.3 cm. Vienna, Graphi-
sche Sammlung Albertina.

Venice was the “Manhattan of the

Old World”, a bustling city of
fashion and luxury. Diirer studied
not only the art of his Italian fellows
but also Venetian society’s opulent
style. His eye for every fold of the
ladies’ costly gowns was keen.

Nuremberg Damsel Dressed for the

Dance, 1500-1501. Ink drawing
on paper with watercolour,
32.4 x 21.1 cm. Basle, Offentliche
Kunstsammlung, Kupferstich-
t
‘ \
kabinett.
\ iN

Nes 8 a et

26
 aah Beee
lS.
SR ae,
Se
SOR
eres
s
ae

a
PS~
a=

Three Livonian Women, 1 yA.

Watercolour and ink, 18.7 x 19.7 cm.
Paris, Musée du Louvre, E. v. Roth-
schild Colle ction.
Adam and Eve, 1504. Copper engrav-
onG, eo se WE)S)Cray,

Adam and Eve, 1504. Ink drawing

with brown wash on paper,
24.2 x 20.1 cm. New York,
J. Pierpont Morgan Library.

After 1500, Ditirer devoted intense la-

bours to the ideal proportions of the
human body. The drawing he made
in preparation for his copper engrav-
ing of the biblical ancestors of the
race was purely a study in body pos-
ture.
ji

es
N

cae
SONG
AS

i
 Young Couple Walking, undated.
Brown ink drawing on paper,
25.8 x 19.1 cm. Hamburg, Hambur-
ger Kunsthalle. (Unevenly cut.)

This ink drawing, probably done in

Basle, was a product of Diirer’s jour-
neyman years. Couples walking out
made a popular subject in the 15th
century. Diirer’s realistic piece goes
beyond the work of other artists
working in idealistic, courtly modes,
and gives the two lovers more dis-
tinctively individual features than
was usual. The young man even
bears a resemblance to the artist him-
self.

u | cue
ou
PA

HONEVIWEL
PEAQNING CENTRE

30
Nude Woman, 1493. Ink drawing on
paper, 27.2 x 14.7 cm. Bayonne,
Musée Bonnat.

at \ L
ty ks

Nude Woman, undated. Ink drawing,

29 x 18.8 cm. From the “Dresden
sketchbook”. Dresden, Sichsische
Landesbibliothek.

Opposite: The Womens’ Bath,

1496. Ink drawing on Paper,
23.1 x 22.6cm. Lost (since 1945); for-
merly Bremen, Kunsthalle Bremen.

The six women in the drawing

represent six different ages.
 VRE
‘RRA

SRA
NII
\

AN
ASS

te
Nh
N
5

VV
\
\e he Sa

‘
‘

¥ \
N a

‘ \

ae,
a
ag
“

.
_—
Female Nude from the Rear, 1495. f
Brush drawing on paper, 32 x 21 cm. f
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des LE
Dessins.

Diirer tackled the nude at an early

stage, as his 1495 brush and pen
drawings show. These were the first
female nudes to be done from living
models north of the Alps.

Opposite: Apollo, undated. Grey-

brown ink drawing on unevenly cut
paper, 31.5 x 22.3 cm. Zurich,
Kunsthaus Ziirich, Graphische
Sammlung.

34 tani
yet er eee a
ie. oe
3)
Opposite: Six Nude Figures, 1515.
Ink drawing, 27.1 x 21.2 cm. Frank-
furt, Stidelsches Kunstinstitut.

Scenes of martyrdom, such as this

nude tied to a tree, were familiar in
the late medieval world. The world
view of the pre-Reformation Church
emphasized martyrs. Christ Himself
was tied to a stake and flogged be-
fore the crucifixion. This drawing
was no doubt a preliminary study for
some martyrdom scene, such as
Direr’s Martyrdom of the Ten Thou-
sand (1508).

Nude Man with a Club (detail), un-

dated. Ink drawing, 11.5 x 17.5 cm.
Lvov, Lubomirski Museum. (Mono-
gram added by another hand.)
 ' \ \\ \\

—
, 2 SI IY }
Pr
f
a | | 7 / Uf! GT
O00
/SHA "Mig — Ly WW Pry eS

wat ¥ Vf
C44 ,
ooh 02 pd SPIT :
—s , L = A, <
by f = -
Beene¢ : yy
F : a4 2 ake
—~_
: 44), , ‘

aS
mC ENN

Sony

_
Wy)

iree
S-
RA

el
GS
Opposite: Study for the Robes of Feet of an Apostle, 1508. Ink draw-
Christ, 1508. Brush drawing with ing with white highlighting on green
white highlighting on green primed paper, 17.7 x 21.7 cm. Rotterdam,
paper, 25.6 x 19.6 cm. Paris, Musée Museum Boymans-van Beuningen.
du Louvre. (Monogram and date by
Diirer)

Another preliminary study for the

Heller altar (destroyed) shows
Christ’s robes.
 The Hands of the Twelve-Year-Old
Christ, 1506. Study for the painting
The Twelve- Year-Old Christ among
the Scholars. Ink drawing with wash
and white highlighting on blue Vene-
tian paper, 20.7 x 18.5 cm. Nurem-
berg, Germanisches Nationalmu-
seum.

pa tet
sated
Lee 4
Opposite: Study of Three Hands,
2
ed de >
1494. Ink drawing, 27 x 18 cm.
Vienna, Graphische Sammlung
Albertina.
4 Diirer frequently drew hands. At
a times he did so purely for practice,
co
capturing gestures or movements in
Sty
met the process. At other times he was
making preliminary studies for
works such as The Twelve- Year-Old
Christ among the Scholars. Hands
were evidently of great importance
to Diirer, and he analysed them
closely in his “Four Books of
Human Proportions”.

Study of the left hand, in: “Four

Books of Human Proportions”,

40
etealty
3

4]
“tt

fa
Praying Hands, 1508. Ink drawing
on blue paper, 29 x 19.7 cm. Vienna,
Graphische Sammlung Albertina.

In 1508 Diirer began work towards

the Heller altar. He did a number of
sketches, including this drawing of
hands folded in prayer, now one of
his most famous works. A later copy
shows that they were the hands of an
apostle, gathered at an empty grave
with his fellows and gazing upward
at the coronation of the Virgin Mary.
Standing Apostle, 1508. Study for
the Heller altar. Indian ink drawing
with wash and white highlighting on
green primed paper, 40.7 x 24 cm.
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin —
PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, Kupfer-
stichkabinett. (Monogram and date
by Diirer.)

For two years, 1508 and 1509, Diirer

worked on an altar commissioned by
Jakob Heller, a Frankfurt merchant.
The centre panel, depicting the coro-
nation of the Virgin, was destroyed
by a fire in the palace at Munich in
1729. All that now remains is a 17th-
century copy, and 18 brush draw-
ings. The apostle with the shep-
herd’s staff is one of these prelimin-
ary studies.

Page 46: Head of an Angel, 1500.

Study for the painting Adoration of
the Virgin, or, Feast of Rose Gar-
lands. Brush drawing with white
highlighting on blue Venetian paper,
27 x 20.8 cm. Vienna, Graphische
Sammlung Albertina.

Page 47: Head of the Twelve-Year-

Old Christ, undated. Study for the
painting The Twelve- Year-Old Christ
among the Scholars. Ink drawing
with white highlighting on blue
Venetian paper, 27.5 x 21.1 cm.
Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Al-
bertina.
48
49
Page 48: Portrait of aMan, c. 1521.
Charcoal drawing, 36.8 x 25.5 cm.
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin —
PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, Kupfer-
stichkabinett.

Page 49: Portrait of a Young Man,

1520. Charcoal drawing,
36.6 x 25.8 cm. Berlin, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin — PreuBischer
Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett.
(Monogram and date by Diirer.)

Man with a Drill, c. 1496-1497. Ink

drawing, 25.1 x 15.1 cm. Bayonne,
Musée Bonnat.

—_—~,
( BER
4 “J

ye iff
oS, ri
VSZz
1 : LBB

ws * ‘ci

La ut?”
ie Ag
Ce
SNAG PM eS GZ
The Knight, Death and the Devil,
1513. Copper engraving,
24.4 x 18.9 cm.

This 1513 engraving of an eques-

trian Christian knight is one of
Diirer’s masterpieces as engraver.
With St. Jerome and Melancolia it
constitutes the great high-point in
Diirer’s graphic work.

Opposite: Horseman, 1498. Ink

drawing touched in with watercolour
on paper, 41.2 x 32.4 cm. Vienna,
Graphische Sammlung Albertina.
Sil
 Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1520.
Charcoal drawing on paper,
37.3 x 27.1 cm. Paris, Musée du
Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins.

Diirer met the preeminent scholar on

a number of occasions. Erasmus re-
quested a portrait by Diirer, but was
extremely disappointed by the result.

52
The Harbour at Antwerp, 1520. \nk
drawing, 21.3 x 28.3 cm. Vienna,
Graphische Sammlung Albertina.

This 1520 view of the prosperous

port at the mouth of the Schelde,
with its clear composition and
straightforward handling of line, is
one of Diirer’s most important land-
scapes.

33
 Opposite: Portrait of aSlovene Peas-
ant Woman, 1505. Ink drawing on
paper inked in with brown Indian
ink, 41.6 x 28.1 cm. London, The
British Museum. (Monogram and
date by Diirer.)

Diirer added the words “a Slovene

farmwoman”’ to this portrait of a
grinning woman. The painter prob-
ably passed through the region be-
tween Styria and Carinthia when he
travelled to Venice in 1505.

Katharina the Moor, 1521.

Silverpoint drawing on
paper, 20 x 14 cm.
Florence, Galleria degli Uf-
fizi, Gabinetto Disegni e
Stampe.

While staying in the Ant-

werp home of Joao Bran-
dao, a Portuguese mer- Portrait of aNegro, 1508.
chant, Diirer drew this Charcoal drawing on
portrait of a black servant paper, 32 x 21.8 cm.
employed there, as he Vienna, Graphische Samm-
noted in his diary. The lung Albertina.
drawing is inscribed: “Ka-
This portrait of a black
tharina aged 20 years.”
was very probably done as
a preliminary study for
one of the great altars Al-
brecht Diirer and his stu-
dio created around 1508.

54
 ‘2
t
}3
3
:i

n Nn
Page 56: Head of a Young Woman Page 57: Head of a Young Woman, Opposite: Three Orientals, 1514. Ink
with Closed Eyes, c. 1520. Ink undated. Brush drawing with white and black and brown Indian ink,
drawing with white highlighting, highlighting on blue Venetian paper, 30.5 x 19.9 cm. London, The British
32.4 x 22.8 cm. London, The Brit- 28.5 x 19 cm. Vienna, Graphische Museum.
ish Museum. Sammlung Albertina.

btu le
a

raw
are

O¥LEVMAN
LASPEMATOR, ©
ae? ee

Sultan Suleiman, 1526. Silverpoint

drawing, 18.4 x 13.3 cm. Bayonne,
Musée Bonnat. (Monogram by
Diirer.) Sultan Suleiman (the Magni-
ficent; 1494-1566), who reigned
from 1520, was one of the greatest
rulers of the Ottoman Empire. In
1526, the year this likeness was
taken, his many conquests took him
as far as Hungary. SEEUCRRN

An Oriental Ruler on his Throne,

c. 1495, Ink and Indian ink on paper,
30.6 x 19.7 cm. Washington, Na-
tional Gallery of Art, Alisa Mellon
Bruce Fund.

Western Europeans lived in fear of

oriental rulers in the late Middle
Ages. In 1529 the Turks laid siege to
Vienna, threatening the very exist-
ence of occidental Christendom.

58
Ln

59
The Imperial Orb, undated. Ink
drawing touched in with yellow
watercolour, 27.3 x 21 cm. Nurem-
berg, Germanisches Nationalmu-
seum.

The Emperor’s Glove, undated. Ink

and watercolour, 30.5 x 19.8 cm.
Budapest, Szépmiivészeti Muzeum,
Praun and Esterhazy Collection.

As preparation for a portrait of Char-

lemagne, Diirer studied the Holy
Roman Empire’s crown jewels and
precious state apparel, kept in Nu-
remberg and put on public display
every Easter. As well as the imperial
sceptre and orb, the collection in-
cluded an opulent glove.

60
The Imperial Crown, undated. Ink
drawing touched in with watercol-
our, 23.7 x 28.1 cm. Nuremberg,
Germanisches Nationalmuseum.

The crown of the Holy Roman Em-

pire was also among the Nuremberg
crown jewels. Though it was not in
fact made until the coronation of
Otto the Great in 962, in Diirer’s
imaginary portrait it is worn by
Charlemagne (742/3-8 14).

2 CD 2@)

Opa)
* 0 9
SS

g SS

fo i
J

=! ts |

aS)

‘a
Pe

61
 Two (Fantastic) Pillars,
1515. Ink drawing
touched in with red, blue
and brown watercolour,
20.3 x 14.3 cm. London,
WDWises The British Museum,
(Monogram by Diirer,
date added by another
hand.)

Opposite: Design for

a Table Fountain,
1509. Ink drawing with
colour ink wash,
30.5 x 19.4 cm. Oxford,
Ashmolean Museum.
(Monogram by Diirer,
date added by another
hand.)
The Boy Saviour, 1493. Tempera on
vellum, 11.8 x 9.3 cm. Vienna,
Graphische Sammlung Albertina.

The Child Christ Enthroned, 15006.

Study for Madonna with the Siskin.
Brush drawing with white highlight-
ing on blue Venetian paper,
39.6 x 27.2 cm. Lost (since 1945); for-
merly Bremen, Kunsthalle Bremen.
(Monogram and date by Diirer). The
differences between this study and
the final painting indicate the im-
portance Diirer assigned to pre-
liminaries in their own right.

65
 Crying Cherub, 1521. Study for the
painting The Crucifixion. Crayon
drawing with white highlighting on
blue primed paper, 21.1 x 16.7 cm.
Nuremberg, Germanisches National-
museum.

Child’s Head Facing Right, undated.

Brush drawing with white high-
lighting on blue Venetian paper,
16 x 10.9 cm. Paris, Musée du
Louvre.

66
67
 Opposite: Mary Suckling the Infant,
1512. Charcoal drawing,
Below left: Mary Suckling the Infant 41.8 x 28.8 cm. Vienna, Graphische
on a Grassy Bank, undated. Ink Sammlung Albertina.
drawing, 11.7 x 7.8 cm. Vienna,
Mary as the giver of milk, the galac-
Graphische Sammlung Albertina.
trophusa, is an age-old subject in
(Monogram by another hand.)
Christian art. Diirer’s is a worldly
Below right: Mary in Nuremberg treatment of the subject; he has
Traditional Costume, 1502. Ink Small Head of Mary. Ink draw- chosen to portray a woman of his
drawing, 19.9 x 12.8 cm. Oxford, ing, 4.2 x 4.2 cm. Hamburg, own time, and has dispensed with
Ashmolean Museum. Hamburger Kunsthalle. the halo.
69
 Opposite: Adam and Eve (rear
view), 1510. Ink drawing,
29.5 x 22 cm. Vienna, Graphische
Sammlung Albertina. (Monogram
and date by Diirer.)

Temptation and seduction, personi-

fied here in the first two human
beings on earth (in Christian teach-
ing), gave Diirer an occasion to draw
a scene of unusual intimacy,
stripped to the essentials of erotic
desire.

70
 =
orrTeh

bee
—
”
Venus and Cupid, the Honey Thief,
1514. Ink and brush study touched in
with watercolour, 21.6 x 31.3 cm.
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.
(Monogram and date by Diirer.)

73
 Nett? eee poner .
NoreQe prosetreedl Qe [ih fogcges vt sald
ae Yn aaa am os spb OS =
SNES fro
Ona
np byronB SSET
Qemng: > Fp “) acs
ee Nn fil nate
Sy AP mh MEG. Oia maori pe
Loapig ohSng PIPY, e 3
\0.9 PD Sor RS wT Wed poh pety Br beeepgtag
6
pmol QS Spe Dyin graff Se ft syd rhe \y Ss
home fod pm Se Pape Sy 1
Sys Ne
Gy Se 5 pl amen Se py
on” WE.yeel & ae
fae y Ape oe denen
ee eee

dy oyede
a apie -
9 wel pete Ieee Gp eas Tales
Eds
Pheeps Ragas,LenS LC abe
sere

aeeed® Spe oe egos | e7TUs:, :

Ng ae Crater
er at —o Pato
own aa Ba okt ieee
rab rasse ie
* varias és
See 3
coed Friseyomtny paregtLy,
hose Gre
een gign es
Op (aaa fens, fa > spss
e
Aka comes eid Cre: Gated Ae
& m lye “J is ered

4 in pa Lae C) ye

a be a NB)
ey a \¥) |

. Ee / | ‘a ie a
= oF

Nude Man in a Circle and a Square, Portrait of a Boy with a Long Beard,
1507. 1527. Watercolour on canvas,
55.2 x 27.8 cm. Paris, Musée du
Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins.
(Monogram and date by Diirer.)

74
 Png Bretownty
Easy digee
Coot jforob pa
| bs,

The Ertlingen Siamese Twins, 1512.

Indian ink drawing, 15.8 x 20.8 cm.
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum.
(Monogram and date by Diirer.)

Like his elder contemporary Leo-

nardo da Vinci, Diirer turned re-
peatedly to biological abnormality.
This new kind of interest in the nat-
ural world produced this drawing of
a malformed girl.

75
 The Great Piece of Turf, 1503.
Watercolour and opaque,
41 x 31.5 cm. Vienna, Graphische
Sammlung Albertina.

This natural-size representation of

grasses, dandelion, pimpernel and
plantain was entirely new in art
when Diirer painted it in 1503.
Never before had anyone dared to
paint anything as insignificant as a
piece of turf. Diirer was later to ac-
count for his avant-garde sense of
the real in his Four Books of Human
Proportions: “Life in Nature reveals
the truth of things.”

76
 ENS
EL &

Tris (Iris troiana), 1508. Ink, watercol-

our and opaque on watermarked
paper, 77.5 x 31.3 cm. Bremen, Kunst-
halle Bremen. (Monogram by
Diirer, dated by another hand.)

Plants, and particularly flowers,

figured significantly as symbols in
the Christian iconography of redemp-
tion in the age of Diirer. In paintings
of saints and in altar pieces, flowers
usually have a mystical meaning re-
lated to the Virgin Mary or Christ.
Traditionally, the iris was symbolic
of the forgiveness of sins.

78
 *
il
&

+ i
+

a *
dit

28 sd w

‘ ci

i *

~ »

*
5 *

.
*
od

® °

—
.

* 4
- oo :
#
i P ‘5 »

be) °
shou

a a

ad
*

*
«
*
 ca ‘s)2)tw
*
v eo

cA a
Rhinoceros, 1515. Ink drawing,
27.4 x 42 cm. London, The British
Museum.

In 1515, King Manuel I of Portugal

had an elephant and a rhinoceros
brought to Lisbon as a gift for Pope
Leo X. The ship carrying the rhi-
noceros sank, however, on its way to
Italy, before the animal reached
Rome. Diirer cannot have seen the
rhino himself, but must have worked
from reports and perhaps sketches
by third parties — hence the anatom-
ical anomalies in his version.

81
Head of a Roebuck, 1514. Brush
watercolour drawing,
22.8 x 16.6 cm. Bayonne, Musée
Bonnat. (Diirer’s monogram, and
date, probably by Hans Kulmbach.)

Diirer worked on his pictures of ani-

mals in three stages. First (as in this
head of a roebuck) he brushed in the
outlines. Then he coloured in the
larger areas. Finally he brushed in
the detailed work on fur and other
finer areas.

Elk, c. 1519. Brush drawing,

21.3 x 26 cm. London, The British
Museum.
 Head of a Deer, with Monstrous Ant-
lers, undated. Brown ink drawing,
24 x 30.9 cm. Berlin, Staatliche Mu-
seen zu Berlin — PreuSischer Kultur-
besitz, Kupferstichkabinett.

84
Chandelier Figure, 1513. Ink and
watercolour, 15.3 x 19.5 cm. Vienna,
Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Using a combination of antlers and

wooden figures for candlesticks and
chandeliers was fashionable in the
late Gothic. Diirer made a number of
these bizarre sculptures for his friend
Willibald Pirckheimer, among them
a nude woman with an elk’s pal-
mated antlers.
 Young Hare, 1502. Watercolour and
opaque with white highlighting on
paper, 25.1 x 22.6 cm. Vienna,
Graphische Sammlung Albertina.

Diirer’s scientific interests are par-

ticularly apparent in his pictures of
animals and plant life. The precision
of his technique conveys an im-
pression of absolute faithfulness to
Nature. Over a colour wash he
painted the fur detail with a pointed
brush, creating the illusion that he
had painted every single hair on the
hare’s body, an illusion that doubt-
less led to this painting’s extraordi-
nary popularity.

86
 Wing of a Blue Roller (corracias ge-
rula), 1512. Watercolour and opaque
on parchment, 19.7 x 20 cm. Vienna,
Graphische Sammlung Albertina.

Aged 41, Diirer was at the height of

his powers and fame when he
painted this bird’s wing in 1512. His
eye is as anatomically exact as a bio-
logist’s in his rendering of wing
joints and the colours of the plum-
age. This may have served as a
model for angels’ wings in votive
pictures.

88
89
 Muzzle of an Ox (frontal view),
1523. Brown, grey-black and pale
pink watercolour, 19.7 x 15.8 cm.
London, The British Museum.
(Monogram and date by another
hand.)

“The more accurately your work rep-

resents life, the better it will appear,”
was one of Diirer’s key tenets. It ac-
counts for his love of seemingly in-
significant detail, apparent not only
Head of a Walrus, 1521. Ink and in his studies of plants and his por-
brown Indian ink, 21.1 x 31.2 cm. trait sketches but also, as here, in the
London, The British Museum. muzzle of an ox, or the attempt at
(Monogram and date by Diirer.) drawing a walrus.

90
 IO
Vanes
~

am
ee

haa ee
Two Sketches
for the Draughtsman
with a Pot, undated. Ink drawing,
18.7 x 20.4 cm. Dresden, Sachsische
Landesbibliothek.

Diirer’s Drawing Frame, 1515. Ink

drawing, 12.2 x 17.4 cm. London,
The British Museum.

Diirer used the drawing frame, in-

vented in Italy, in order to reproduce
things in precise perspective and rep-
resent them accurately to scale.

Portrait of aMaster Builder, un-

dated. Study for the painting Adora-
tion of the Virgin, or, Feast of Rose
Garlands. Brush drawing on blue
Venetian paper, 38.6 x 26.3 cm. Ber-
lin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin —
PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, Kupfer-
stichkabinett.

This lean-featured man holding a

square is Hieronymus, a master
builder of Nuremberg. Diirer drew
the portrait as a preliminary study
for Adoration of the Virgin, or, Feast
of Rose Garlands, a painting which
shows Mary and the boy Jesus distrib-
uting rose garlands to Pope Julius
II, Emperor Maximilian, and promin-
ent citizens of Nuremberg.
etniens
nmr
 Albrecht Diirer 1471-1528:
A Chronology

1471 Albrecht Diirer is born on 21 May, the third of 18 children of

poor parents. His father, a goldsmith, moved to Nuremberg from Hun-
gary. Albrecht is initially apprenticed to him.

1486 He is apprenticed to the Nuremberg master painter Michael Wol-

gemut.

1490 Diirer senior sends his son on his journeyman years, to Basle,
Colmar and Strasburg.

1494 Diirer returns to Nuremberg and marries Agnes Frey, daughter of a

wealthy merchant. Fleeing the plague, he travels to Italy, where he stud-
ies the work of the Renaissance masters, especially Andrea Mantegna.

1495 Diirer returns to Nuremberg and establishes his own woodcut

workshop.
Diirer’s house in Nuremberg, which
1498 He issues his Apocalypse series of woodcuts, which earns him
he bought in 1509.
immediate fame. He begins a lifelong friendship with Willibald Pirck-
heimer, Nuremberg humanist and imperial counsellor.

1505 Again Diirer flees the plague, travelling to Italy, where he visits
Bologna, Florence and Rome but spends most of his time in Venice.
He meets the Venetian aristocracy and familiarizes himself with the art
of Leonardo and Raphael.

1507 Diirer returns home, painting famous landscape watercolours on

his way.

1509 He buys an imposing residence in Nuremberg, now a Diirer mu-

seum, and is elected to the Grand Council of the city.

1512 Diirer works as a book illustrator for Holy Roman Emperor Maxi-
milian.

1513/14 Three master engravings: The Knight, Death and the Devil;
St. Jerome in his Study, and Melancolia.

94
1515 The Emperor awards Diirer an annual pension of 100 guldens.

1518 Diirer is a Nuremberg delegate at the Augsburg Imperial Diet

(Reichstag), where he paints the portraits of a number of powerful
men, including the wealthiest man of the age, Jakob Fugger the
merchant.

1519 He paints several portraits of his patron, Maximilian, who died

in January.

1520 In July, again fleeing the plague, he takes his wife and maid to
the Netherlands, where he petitions for the continuance of his pension
by Maximilian’s successor, Charles V. He follows the young Emperor
via Antwerp and Brussels to Cologne, till his wish is granted.

1521 Diirer and his wife spend the spring in Antwerp, where he studies
Dutch art and is particularly impressed by Lucas van Leyden. His
diary mentions the painting of twelve works. Soon thereafter he falls
ill with malaria, from which he is to suffer for the rest of his life. In
August he returns to Nuremberg.

1522 Diirer reacts sympathetically towards Luther and the Refor-

mation.

1524 In the upheaval of the Reformation, five “godless painters” are

put on trial in Nuremberg, among them Diirer’s journeyman Jorg
Pencz and his pupils Barthel and Sebald Beham, who are banished
from the city.

1525 His woodcarver Hieronymus Andreae is arrested for his involve-

ment in the Peasants’ Revolt. Diirer publishes his treatise “The Teach-
ing of Measurements”.

1526 Diirer paints his Four Apostles, a late masterpiece.

1527 Writes “Fortifications of Towns, Castles and Places”, a military

treatise dedicated to the King of Bohemia, a brother of the Emperor.

1528 The “Four Books of Human Proportions” are published post-

humously. Diirer dies on 6 April and is buried in St. John’s churchyard.
At the time of his death he is one of the hundred wealthiest citizens
of Nuremberg, leaving his wife (the couple having remained childless)
a fortune equivalent to about £100,000 in today’s money.

95
SARINSLEY CLULLEG}
HONEYWELL
FEDQHING CENTRE

——
)
=~
ISB N 3-8228-85

ali. 83822'8857
wee