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Billie
Ann Lopez
Part
I: A Special Exhibition at Vienna's Cathedral and Archdiocese Museum
on Stephansplatz
Two
of Vienna's superb, but often overlooked, museums have joined
together to present a special exhibition of Albrecht Duerer's
woodcuts and engravings. The Erzbischoefliches Dom- und
Dioezesanmuseum (Cathedral and Archdiocese Museum on Stephansplatz)
and the Kupferstichkabinett der Akademie der bildenden Kuenste Wien
(Academy of Fine Arts on Schillerplatz) are presenting a selection of
woodcuts and engravings from the Academy's large and outstanding
collection from April 3 until June 28, 2003.
"What
beauty is, I do not know. Nobody knows it but God." Thus wrote
Albrecht Duerer in his unfinished handbook "Nourishment for
Young Painters." Unlike most of the painters of his day who
sought the ideal in their subject matter, Duerer was much more
interested in expressing the beauty of reality in his-warts and all.
It
was Duerer who first successfully made the transition from northern
Europe's late Gothic style to the emerging Renaissance from the
south. Duerer has been called the "Leonardo of the North"
because of his wide-ranging interests and curiosity as well as the
first "people's artist" due to the widespread availability
of prints from his woodcuts and engravings made possible by the
invention of the printing press shortly before his birth. Just as
Gutenberg's printing press device helped bring about literacy via the
printed word to men and women of ordinary means, it also made it
possible to bring printed images to feed their souls in the intimacy
of their homes.
Albrecht
Duerer was born in 1471 in Nuremberg. He was the third of 18
children born to his Nuremberger mother and Hungarian-born goldsmith
father and one of only three of the children to survive to
adulthood. As a boy, Duerer learned the skills of a goldsmith
in his father's workshop. However, he was drawn to painting and at
the age of 15, his father apprenticed him to the workshop of a
Nuremberg artist where he served for three years. He then spent a few
years traveling in northern Europe--to Cologne, possibly the
Netherlands, as well as Basle and Strasbourg-to see the work of other
painters of his day before returning home to marry his parents'
choice, Agnes Frey. A few months later he traveled to Venice for half
a year where he worked and met many of the Italian painters whose
works influenced his own work that eventually inspired the art of
northern Europe. When he finally returned home, he was ready to set
up his own workshop.
Although
he was only 24 years old, he already had a body of work reflecting
his great talent and his confidence as an innovator-he was, as far as
we know today, one of the first artists to draw and paint himself,
beginning with a self-portrait drawn at the age of 13. He painted
several over the years and used himself as a model in some of his
paintings on other subjects. But while he is recognized as one of the
finest painters of his day, today he is known more for his woodcuts
and engravings.
Duerer
was one of the first artists to fully understand and appreciate the
power of the printing press and even came to prefer working with it
saying it was ultimately more profitable and entailed less
frustration and labor than painting individual pieces for individual
patrons. There were drawbacks to be sure. Martin Bailey in his
splendid book DUERER, published by Phaidon in 1995, says that Duerer
probably brought the first artistic copyright infringement lawsuit
which came about when he discovered an Italian artist who was
successfully copying Duerer's designs and selling them as Duerer's
work. Though Duerer's lawsuit did not succeed in making it illegal
for other artists to copy and sell his work, the lawsuit did make it
unlawful for copiers to include his distinctive monogram on their copies.
Amongst
the Academy's Duerer graphics collection now on exhibition in the
Archdiocese and Cathedral Museum are some of his most important works
including "Knight, Death and the Devil", "St. Jerome
in His Study", and "Melancholie I" as well as his
series on the Large Passion and the Life of Mary. Also included are
some of Duerer's portraits and subjects from the natural world such
as his rhinoceros. A special surprise, at least for the author, is a
lock of Duerer's hair on exhibit in a leather case. This 475 year old
lock of hair is dark brown but has golden strands curled around
it. A special catalogue, German text only, for this exhibition
may be purchased for 18 Euro.
The
Duerer Exhibition runs from 3 April until 28 June, 2003
Location:
The Erzbischoefliches Dom- und Diozesanmuseum is on Stephansplatz
No. 6.
Opening
Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Part
II. Vienna's Albertina Museum will be showing close to
200 drawings, water colors, paintings and prints from its own Duerer
collection as well as works on loan from the National Gallery and
British Museum in London, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the
Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the
Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in
Madrid, and the National Museum in Lisbon from the 5th of September
to the 30th of November, 2003. More about this upcoming exhibition
later this summer. |
