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Nuremberg, 1507-1520
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In early 1507, Durer was again in Venice, and at the beginning of
February—the middle of winter—he again took the difficult trip to
return to Nuremberg. In the period that followed, he produced
several masterpieces: the two very beautiful panels of Adam and Eve, tangible and immediate reflection of his studies on human
proportion; great altarpieces - Heller Altar, Landauer Altar; and important works of
graphic art.
The first thing he set about doing was to translate, with the help
of his friend Willibald Pirckheimer, Euclid's Perspectiva
naturalis,
which he had acquired in Venice. During the same time, he was
dedicated to the plan for a treatise on the theoretical elements of
painting, which he had already outlined during his trip to Italy.
Following this came a treatise on human proportion and
one on horses and architecture. A third treatise was to concern
perspective in general, light and color. Having developed the ideas
of Italian artists and theoreticians—Vitruvio, Alberti, and
Leonardo— in 1508-9, Durer finally began to write and lay out his
own concepts, demonstrating once again that he was not only a great
artist, but a serious scholar of theoretical problems concerning
art.
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Adam and Eve
1507
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Adam and Eve
In 1587, both the works were in the collection of Rudolph II, in Prague.
From there, they were purloined by Swedish troops and brought to
Stockholm. In 1654, Queen Christina donated them to Philip IV of Spain.
There are several preparatory studies Durer made of human proportions,
which he had already begun during his second sojourn in Venice: a
drawing in which he sketches the Apollo Belvedere; a second drawing, in
pen and ink; the engraving in 1504; and finally, the important paintings
that we are presently treating. Adam's complexion is slightly darker and
less bright than Eve's. His wavy hair, slender legs, the right heel just
lifted off the ground, are in perfect balance, according to the
classical canon of Polycletus, the contrapposto, rediscovered in the
early Renaissance. The whole figure is outstretched in an amorous
movement, with slightly parted lips; only the gesture of the right hand
hints of Adam's instinctive initial hesitation. Eve, on the contrary, is
more active, more concrete: she shows signs of a step and while casting
an inviting look to Adam, she gently smiles. Both figures are twisting
slightly toward the other. Durer determined to sing the praises of the
beauty of the Creation in his presentation of the first human couple. He
gave his figures life with a very skilled depiction of movement, thus
actualizing one of the finest examples of representation of the human
form.
One of the copies of the work, probably by his student Hans Baldung
Grien, is found in Florence at the Uffizi Gallery.
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Adam
1507
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Eve
1507
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Portrait of a Young Man
This painting probably came from the collection of Rudolph II. Durer
returned to Nuremberg in the spring of 1507, after his second
sojourn in Venice. Opinions differ as to the whereabouts of the
painting of this portrait, which demonstrates, on the one hand, all
the pictorial characteristics of the Venetian tradition (following
in the steps of Giovanni Bellini, according to Winkler, 1929; or
Vicenzo Catena, according to Panofsky, 1943), and shows the
depiction of a youth wearing a typically Venetian beret, which would
mean it was Venice; on the other hand, the type of wood used for the
panel, lindenwood, would have its execution in Nuremberg, upon his
return. It should be recalled that Durer only used panels of poplar
while in Venice, or, rarely, elm. The alternative, regarding the
setting and brightness of the portrait being typically Venetian, in
fact, is purely speculative.
The portrait almost aggressively
approaches the spectator. It is dominated by a light, slightly
reddish face, an intense, far-off gaze, a short and robust nose, a
wide mouth, and turgid lips surmounted by a hint of downy hair. Even
the beard under the chin is delicate and contrasts with the almost
frizzy hair, painted with an extremely thin brush. Despite the fact
that the painting is not completely preserved in this area, one can
still appreciate the extraordinary skill of execution. One
appreciates above all the difference between the stroke used for the
hair and the one, just as skillful though different, adopted for the
hairs of the fur collar, giving a showy trim to the coat. His talent
drew praise from the Venetians and particular admiration from
Giovanni Bellini. The snow-white of the shirt
represents the third note of color of the painting, next to the
delicate pink of the flesh and to the black, found in the elegantly
worn beret and in the clothing, silhouetted against the similarly
black background.
He employs what he learned from Venetian painting and his special
talent for painting, with very fine strokes for hair and fur—a
talent that markedly distinguishes him from his Venetian colleagues.
Durer thus manages to vivify even a face like this one, that except
for the mouth, has rigid and immobile features, and for that, on the
whole, is not very expressive.
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Portrait of a Young Man
1507
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
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Portrait of a Young Girl
This small painting was in the collection of the Imhoff family of
Nuremberg, and cited in their inventory from 1573-74 until 1628. In
1633, it was handed over, with the title Portrait of a Young Girl,
with other works by Durer, to Abraham Bloemart, an artist and
merchant from Amsterdam.
An identical portrait, judging from the description, and cited as a
"copy of Durer," was found in the register of the collection of
Archduke Leopoldo Gugliemo in 1659.
In 1899, the portrait reappears in London, and the firm P. and D.
Colnaghi donated it to the Berlin art gallery (Anzelewsky, 1991).
The delicate girl is portrayed with soft, curly blond hair, slightly
dreamy her eyes, one somewhat lower than the other, a gentle,
melancholic gaze; and welldefined, slightly parted lips. The red
beret, worn sideways, with a little slit to the side, with a long
red ruby and black pearl pendant, gives her a slightly cheeky air.
The square green border of the red bodice sets off the upper part of
her body. All these details put together have led to various
interpretations. In addition to the fact that the "girl," when sold
by the Imhoffs, was transformed into a "boy," Panofsky (1955)
attributes an androgynous nature to her that could reveal the
possible homosexual tendencies of the artist.
A teasing letter of 1507 from the canonical Lorenz Behaim of Bamberg
and the fact that the portrait does not seem to have been ordered
would support this
hypothesis.
It has also been debated whether the painting was executed in Venice
or after Durer's return to Nuremberg. According to Anzelewsky, who
considers the clothing to be typically German, there is no doubt as
to its provenance. Justi (1902) speaks of a "reconstructed"
imaginary portrait; but even if frontal portraits are quite rare for
Durer, the many discussions provoked by this would tend to exclude
such a possibility.
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Portrait of a Young Girl
1507
Staatliche Museen, Berlin
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Side and frontal view of the female head type 7
Woodcut
Staatsbibliothek, Bamberg
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Studies on the Proportions of the Female Body
Woodcut
Staatsbibliothek, Bamberg
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Rear view of the female head type 7
Woodcut
Staatsbibliothek, Bamberg
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Figure of Woman Shown in Motion
Woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna
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Hand
Woodcut
Staatsbibliothek, Bamberg
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Emperor Charlemagne and Emperor Sigismund
c. 1512
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg
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The Idealized Portrait of the Emperor of Charlemagne
This painting, and the one following, were commissioned to Durer bv
the council of the city of Nuremberg around 1510, to substitute for
the old portraits of the emperors of the Heiltumskammer (the room of
the insignia) in which the imperial insignia (crown jewels) were
preserved. Three drawings are preserved from the studies Durer did
of the insignia (W 505-7). In all likelihood, after having executed
a detailed drawing in the form of a diptych (W 503), the master
entrusted much of the execution of the portraits to his workshop.
Even on the retro, various coats of arms are found and an
inscription that refers to the preservation of the insignia.
The Emperor Sigismund
It is said that it was Emperor Sigismund to grant the imperial
insignia to the city of Nuremberg. His image in the present portrait
is smaller than that of Charle-
magne, possibly because of the greater encumbrance of
coats of arms, more numerous here. The posterior sides of the two
portraits, with coats of arms and inscriptions, appear equal from a
formal point of view.
In 1526, on orders of the town council, the two portraits were
brought to the town hall from the Heiltumskammer, which was in the
market square in the adjacent house, Schopperhaus, where the
imperial insignia were kept each year for some time.
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Madonna of the Pear
Inscription in the top right, monogrammed and dated 1512 Lindenwood,
49 x 37 cm Vienna, Kunsthistorischcs Museum 1512
Its provenance is probably the same as that for the Madonna Nursing, preserved in the same museum. A refined variety of
details encircle the delicate face of the Virgin: the curls, the
veil, and the ribbon across the forehead. The drawing of the eyes
and eyebrows is sharp, and the red lips are well defined. Bowing her
head tenderly toward her child and bestowing on him an extremely
sweet smile, she presents him to the spectator. He lies on a
sky-blue cloth, under which she hides her hands so as not to touch
him, as one would not touch a precious jewel.
There has always been much discussion about the difference between
the deli-cateness of Maria's face and the robust plasticity of the
Herculean body of the child, likewise, about the differences in the
pictorial technique adopted for each one: a much more physical
depiction of the child than the mother. Much has been said about the
marked torsion in the body of the little boy, which is splendid both
in terms of formal and chromatic considerations. Other similar
examples exist in Durer's paintings and drawings. But no
one, until now, has tried to resolve the meaning of the painting, or
the presence of the cut pear ostentatiously presented by the child.
His limpid and open gaze knowingly peers into the far distance. The
pear as an attribute of Christ and Maria is not rare in Venetian
painting of the Renaissance, and it appears in all Italian painting;
following an interpretation of Bernardo di Chiaravalle of the
Cantico dei Cantici, the sweetness of the taste symbolizes the
sweetness of mouth and heart, which are, according to Saint
Bonaventure, the gifts of the wise (Levi d'Ancona, The Garden of the
Renaissance, 1977). Even Durer depicted it (1509) in the middle of
other fruits in a basket at Maria's feet, in the drawing of the Holy
Family under the Loggia (W 466). The unusual fact in this painting
is that the pear in the child's hand is cut and bitten into.
However, wisdom and sweetness are certainly the principal themes of
this delightful small devotional image.
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Madonna of the Pear
1512
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
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The Madonna of the Carnation
In 1630, this panel was mentioned in the inventory of the
possessions of the elector of Bavaria; it subsequently went to the
episcopal palace of Freising, but it returned definitively to Munich
in 1802. The main part of the space of the painting is occupied by
the Virgin's head, encircled by a luminous halo against a dark green
background. The perfect regularity of her face as seen from the
front leads one to think that, like the Self-Portrait with Fur Coat
of 1500 of Munich, this has been "reconstructed" according
to precise laws of proportion. The Madonna's gaze—her eyes
reflecting, like her child's, the window beside them—is not turned
toward the spectator, but is directed into the distance. Even the
child has a fixed gaze and is busy with a pear in his little hands, while the Madonna gracefully holds a stem of a
carnation, with fruit and flower, between her fingers. Similar to
the Madonna, who, for the rigid, formal composition of the head
seems distant, almost rapt in an ideal world, so the child, with his
wide-open eyes, who seems detached from his mother and the
spectator. The small panel assumes the look of an icon, in which the
carnation alludes to the Passion, and the pear that the child closes
in his hands recalls—according to Saint Bonaventure—the sweetness of
the wise of mouth and heart.
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The Madonna of the Carnation
1516
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
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