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Durer's Workshop in Nuremberg, 1495-1505
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Self-Portrait with Gloves
1498
Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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Self-Portrait
with Gloves
For indications on the provenance of this work, which at one time
was framed with the portrait of his father of 1497 to form a
diptych, see cat. 15. It is 1498, and three years have gone by since
Durer's first journey to Italy. The artist owns his own workshop and
manages his own work. The series of woodcuts about the Apocalypse
comes out. This portrait is from the same year: Durer appears more
confident than in the earlier self-portrait (Self-portrait of
Strasbourg). This one was probably painted in Strasbourg,
and shows just the beginnings of a beard around the chin, and an
even more refined attire.
The neutral background used in the first portrait is abandoned; the
artist depicts himself, like the Haller Madonna,
beside a window that looks out onto a Pre-Alpine landscape. While
there is only an enclosed garden beyond the window in the Madonna
painting, here one enjoys a view of a wide valley, a lake with
rippling waves surrounded by leafy trees, and some houses nestled
just behind. In addition, a cluster of gentle, pleasant hills leads
one's gaze to the background, where high snow-capped mountains rise,
crowned by a luminous but faintly clouded sky. The care that Durer
dedicated to the realization of this panoramic view leads one to
think that he wanted to draw attention to his abilities as a
landscape artist, which he had already demonstrated by his numerous
watercolors. Naturally, in the middle of this landscape, the usual
wayfarer is not absent. The architecture that he creates in the
background painting does not have a logical justification within the
painting. It is necessary because with just the beginning of the
archway sketched, it gives the head more prominence. It is here, in
the head of curly hair, and in the blouse gathered in extremely
fine, tiny pleats, that we have an example of the sort of precise
painting at which Durer excels. He intended to distinguish himself
from the rich merchant class, who are always clad in fur coats in
their portraits. Afterward, in the self-portraits that accompany the
altarpieces, he, too, will wear fur coats. Here, however, Durer
chooses clothing characterized by an elegant color scheme: it begins
with the beret, alternating in white and black, grows richer in the
various shades of gray in the clothing, and finally establishes a
delicate contrast with the fresh color of the skin. The
white-black-gray scheme blends with the brown and purple color of
the cloak, worn on the left shoulder, the white and olive green of
the braided cord that holds it, and the gray of the gloves. Such
refinement in the elegant harmony of the attire is not only a
demonstration of a chromatic aesthetic unto itself, but is meant to
introduce his new personality: that of an independent man who can
choose his own social class.
Perhaps the presence of the gloves indicates this as well. Besides
the portraits of his mother and father , and the Christ as Man of
Sorrows, these being so psychologically intense, no other work,
out of all his paintings from this time until his second trip to
Italy, of such a high pictorial quality has survived.
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 Madonna and Child (Haller Madonna)
c. 1498
National Gallery of Art, Washington
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Haller Madonna
Documented in 1778 in the Praun collection, this painting passed
through many hands. In 1932, it showed up in some English
collections, from where it went to the Thyssen collection, to the
Knoedler collection in New York, and then to the Samuel H. Kress
collection. Kress donated it to the National Gallery in 1950. It is
called the "Haller Madonna" for the presence in the bottom left of
the coat of arms of the Nuremberg family of this name. Another coat
of arms, to the right, does not have clear heraldic characteristics
and has not been identified. The Madonna's face and the strong color
scheme—azure, red, and green, obviously inspired by Giovanni Bellini—bear
witness to how deeply the work of this great Venetian painter had
made an impression on Durer during his first sojourn in Venice.
Nevertheless, the portrayal of the half-length Madonna reveals the
Nordic character of the painter; as does the child, who stretches on
his toes on the cushion, leaning on the mother with a trusting
abandon and a serene knowledge (Tietze, 1928).
Similarly, the narrow internal space is typically Nordic, even if
the imitation marble decorating the walls betrays a careful study of
Italian models.
The same consideration holds for the view enjoyed from the framed
window: an enclosed, flowerless garden, a wide road that bends
around a rocky spur that is covered in trees and crowned by a
castle, and a man and a horse that are crossing through. These
landscape motifs are typical not only in Durer's backgrounds but in
Nordic painting in general. The distant, dreamy gaze of the child,
who, supported by his mother's right hand, rests against her with
all his vitality, is opposed to the absorbed, sad expression on
Mary, which is emphasized by the azure veil that almost completely
covers her forehead. It prompts the impression of an intentional
contrast between the extreme feeling of calm, further communicated
by the soft fall of Mary's ample clothing, and the feeling of
movement and vivacity that emanates from the brilliance of the
child's body, silhouetted against the deep azure of the mother's
cloak. Everything is balanced out by the intense red of the curtains
in the background, which take the entire scene and confer it a grand
solemnity. Durer has perhaps never managed to represent the majesty
of the Madonna in such a clear and vivid manner, suspended between
reality and symbolism, anywhere else.
It is certainly a sign of the inspiration he derived from his study
of Venetian painting. Furthermore, in representing the child with an
apple in hand, turned toward the background—as he did in the famous
engraving of Adam and Eve—the painter might have also wanted to
express the memory of Christ's death as the Redemption of mankind
from the consequences of Original Sin. Since both sides are painted,
it is assumed that the panel was part of a diptych, or
maybe even a triptych, with portraits of the donors on either side.
Private devotional panels of this kind were quite wide-spread in the
Netherlands and in Italy, whereas they were unknown in Nuremberg.
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Lot Fleeing with his Daughters from Sodom
In the far background, one can make out the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah, on which Yahweh rained sulfur and fire. Just slightly in
front of this is Lot's wife, who has already been transformed into a
pillar of salt. Lot and his daughters are shown fleeing in the
foreground, while vapors rise from the ground "like the smoke of a
furnace" (Gen. 19:23-29). Painted with a light touch, the painting
has always been admired for the powerful representation of the fire.
The connection between the Madonna and Child on the anterior side of
the table and the scene on the recto has not yet been definitively
clarified. One possible interpretation could be of the speculum
humanae salvationis as the prefiguration of Christ's descent into
Purgatory. Christ became man and freely accepted human sufferings to
liberate the good souls from Purgatory's tortures; likewise Lot, the
good soul, was saved form the destruction of Sodom (Anzelewsky,
1991). This interpretation would also lead back to the presence of
the apple in the child's hand, on the anterior side of the panel. It
is monogrammed (original?) in the hollow in the field behind the
daughters.
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Lot Fleeing with his Daughters from Sodom
c. 1498
National Gallery of Art, Washington
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The
Dresden Altarpiece
1496
Gemaldegalerie, Dresden
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The
Dresden Altarpiece
Madonna and Child (detail)
1496
Gemaldegalerie, Dresden
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Saint Anthony and Saint Sebastian
Durer executed these side panels, commissioned by Frederick the Wise
upon his return from his first trip to Italy; they came to the
Gemaldegalerie in the eighteenth century. The recto is not painted,
since these panels were firmly fixed to the central panel.
The central one, displayed with the side panels in the
Gemaldegalerie, has also been attributed to Durer in the past (Tietze,
1937). In 1991, Anzelewsky rejected this notion on solid grounds and
attributed it to a Dutch painter of the name Jan, who worked in
Frederick's court.
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The Dresden
Altarpiece
Saint Anthony and Saint Sebastian
(side wings)
1496
Gemaldegalerie, Dresden |
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Portrait of Oswolt Krel
1499
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
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Portrait of Oswolt Krel
1499
Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
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Portrait of Oswolt Krel
This portrait comes from the collection of the Princes
Oettingen-Wallerstein, who had acquired it in 1812; it has been in
its present location since 1928. It is presumed that Oswolt Krell, a
merchant for the Ravensburg House in Nuremberg from 1495 to 1503,
had asked the artist for a true portrait of representation. Its
notable size, similar to that adopted by Durer for the portrait of
his father two years earlier, and its setting, a half-length,
suggests this. In this way, it differs from the Tucher portraits,
which were intended for private use. The background, as in the
Tucher portraits, is divided between the curtain and
landscape passage, unlike those, however, it is divided rather
unevenly. The bright red curtain is wide and occupies most of the
space on the right; the landscape, on the left, is reduced to a
foreshortening that shows a small part of a river that meanders
toward the back, behind a group of tall trees. The windowsill that
separated the subject from the landscape in the Tucher paintings is
absent. The figure represented, set with obvious grandiosity, is
found in front of the curtain, highlighted by intense color.
The large fur-lined cloak is casually placed on the right shoulder
only, to show, on the left side, the rich black garment with the
puffed sleeve. To the disorderly folds of the cloak correspond the
parallel horizontal folds of the sleeve and the vertical ones of the
garment. The three-quarter position allows the pamter to bring out
the quality of the attire: the fur, silk shirt, and gold chain. The
careful, fastidious representation of these meaningful details
creates a powerful foundation for the setting of the head: vigorous,
strong features, the pronounced nose and the strong-willed mouth,
the furrowed eyebrows, as if from a sudden start or fright that
makes him direct his gaze off to the side behind him. Everything
works to make his face threateningly severe, which even the soft,
light brown hair framing him does not attenuate. To the energetic
expression of the face corresponds the nervous look of his left hand
clutching his cloak and that of the contraction of the knotted
fingers of the right hand that leans on an invisible window sill.
Color, form, and proportion heighten the expression of supreme
resolution, an expression that is the result of a serious
psychological study that Durer conducted on the merchant, who was
the same age as the artist and who was later to become the mayor of
Lindau, his native city. The two side panels that represent two
"sylvan men" are wings to the portrait. They bear the heraldic
shields of the subject and his wife, Agathe von Esendorf. They
originally let the portrait be closed from the retro; one could
imagine, then, that despite the large dimensions, the painting was
to be conserved closed. The present frame has been made recently.
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Portrait of Oswolt Krel
"Sylvan Men" with Heraldic Shields
1499
Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
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Portrait of Saint Sebastian with an Arrow
This primitive portrait has been partially repainted and transformed
into a Saint Sebastian with a large halo. Originally, the man wore a
beret and held a broken arrow in his left hand, which rests on the
window sill, as you can still see today. In the whole painting, only
the landscape passage with the lake and the castle in front of the
mountains have remained in its original state. The arrow is a fairly
rare attribute for a portrait, although, in this case, it could
become credible if Sebastian lmhoff were the person portrayed, as
Thode had previously proposed when the painting was first published
in 1893 (Jahrbuch der Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 14). Sebastian
lmhoff was elected to the position of consul of the Fondaco dei
Tedeschi in Venice in 1493.
The painting shows many Durerian portrait characteristics of this
era, such as the landscape beyond the window and the resting of the
hands in the window sill; the minimum of space between the window
sill and the back wall; and the curtain that partially covers it.
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Portrait of St Sebastian with an Arrow
c. 1499
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo
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