A Fresh Perspective

Posted by jns on 24 February 2008

This week’s beard belongs to Albrecht Dürer, easily in my top-10 of most extraordinary artists ever. This amazing self-portrait was painted when the artist was 29 years old, in the year 1500. Is it symbolic that Dürer paints himself in this remarkably self-possessed, self-confident pose, looking directly at the viewer? It’s also interesting that he paints himself more as an aristocrat rather than with the commonly affected palette in hand, as a painter. What is the power in this painting that makes it feel so much as though it communicates directly with the viewer across the more than five centuries since Dürer painted it. Honestly, it creates for me a frisson that very few works of art manage to do.

Dürer was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1471 (21 May), and he died in Nuremberg, Germany in 1528 (6 April). He did not stay his entire life in Nuremberg, but it seems that it was his center and he returned there after his various excursions to Italy and the Netherlands. He was a master of drawing, painting, printmaking, and engraving. He helped develop the newly emerging technique of perspective. He died relatively wealthy, apparently making his money from his prints, for which he was justly celebrated across Europe. (The Wikipedia biography of Dürer is nicely done; I also enjoyed the biography and the lovely images of stamps featuring works by Dürer on this page from Art History on Stamps.)

This page from WebMuseum, Paris has a nice collection of images, some biography, and a useful discussion of his portraiture. I don’t see much point in trying to name any particular favorites, although this self-portrait I certainly put on his list of masterworks. Also famous, and for good reason, are his smallish, early watercolors “A Young Hare” and “The Large Turf“. Both are breathtaking in their amazing realism, yet they go beyond mere realism and seem to breathe with a vitality beyond what any photograph could conjure for these subjects.

When we were in Rome in 2001, we happened upon a small exhibit concerning prints and printmaking through history, and there we saw some Dürer first hand. There was a copy of his notorious print of a Rhinoceros (notorious for being notably inaccurate, apparently drawn from a verbal description of the first rhino to arrive in Europe). We also saw two amazing “oversized” woodcuts (describing them as “oversized” seems such an understatement!) “The Triumphal Arch and the Large Triumphal Carriage of Maximilian I”, which are discussed at some length, along with some remarkable photographs of the works, on this page.

Seeing these things first hand was quite an experience that still feels very close to me.