Albrecht Durer: The Master of German Art.
16, Melencolia I
Dürer exerted a huge influence on the artists of succeeding generations, especially in printmaking,
the medium through which his contemporaries mostly experienced his art,
as his paintings were predominantly in private collections located in only a few cities.
The artist’s success in spreading his reputation across Europe through prints was undoubtedly
an inspiration for other leading artists, including Raphael, Titian and Parmigianino,
all of whom collaborated with printmakers in order to promote and distribute their work.
Melencolia I, one of the artist’s most famous engravings,
was produced in 1514 and the allegory has since been the subject of many interpretations.
The title of the work comes from the Melencolia I text appearing within the engraving itself,
which is the only Dürer engraving to feature a title in the plate. The date of 1514 appears in
the bottom row of the magic square, as well as above Dürer’s monogram at the lower right. It is
generally accepted that Dürer had not planned for a series of engravings on the subject, as the “I”
most likely refers to the first of the three types of melancholia defined by the German humanist
writer Cornelius Agrippa. In this engraving we see Melencholia Imaginativa, which Agrippa held
artists to be subject to when ‘imagination’ predominates over ‘mind’ or ‘reason’.
A magic square is an arrangement of distinct numbers (where each number is used once),
in a square grid, where the numbers in each row, and in each column, and the numbers in the main
and secondary diagonals, all add up to the same number. The square in the engraving features the
traditional magic square rules based on the number 34, and in addition, the square’s four quadrants,
corners and centre also equal this number. The winged genius, representing the figure of
Melancholy, rests her head on her hand, in a pensive manner, while holding a compass.
She is surrounded by geometric shapes, including a sphere and a giant polyhedron,
along with scattered woodworking tools. These tools are drawn from the field of
measuring and building; namely architecture. The rhomboid and sphere represent geometry,
the science of measurement and numbers upon which all arts are based. On the wall of the building,
we can see a bell, an hourglass and scales. A dog sleeps at Melancholy’s feet and a cherub sits
astride an upturned millstone. A bat-like creature holds up the inscription “Melencolia I”. The
symbolic choice of animals adds to the melancholy atmosphere, creating the sense of a dark world.
An autobiographical interpretation of Melencolia I has been suggested by several historians,
including Iván Fenyő, who considered the engraving to be a representation of the artist beset by a
loss of confidence. Others associate Dürer’s Melancholy figure with a lyric confession, the
self-conscious introspection of the Renaissance artist, unprecedented in northern art. Although
the precise meaning of the image remains elusive, we cannot help but note the relationship it
suggests between melancholy and creativity. Though melancholy may sap enthusiasm for creativity, it
can alternatively be a creative force, which has aided artists in time of trouble and dismay.
17, Portrait of Michael Wolgemut
Dürer’s master, Michael Wolgemut (c. 1434-1519), operated one of the largest
artist’s workshops in Germany. In 1516 Dürer painted the following portrait of Wolgemut,
providing the inscription: “This portrait was done by Albrecht Dürer of his teacher,
Michael Wolgemut… and he was 82 years old, and he lived until 1519, when he departed this life on
St Andrew’s Day morning before sunrise.” Dürer had served his apprenticeship under Wolgemut from 1486
until 1489 and the elder artist was very likely proud of his former pupil’s rapid rise in the
world. The focus of the portrait is Wolgemut’s head, set against a neutral green background.
The portrayal of the ageing man is realistic and true, featuring sunken eyes and loose
skin around Wolgemut’s gaunt neck. The master wears a fur-lined coat and a simplistic scarf,
most likely what he would have worn in his workshop to keep off the dust.
Nevertheless, this portrait of an artist reveals the unchecked vivacity of the man,
whose eyes remain alert, while his facial features suggest a thoughtful and intelligent person.
18, The Four Apostles
Dürer’s last great work, formed of two panels, was donated by the artist on 6 October 1526 to
the people of Nuremberg. As it was common in medieval cities in Italy to bestow the
town hall with an artwork that would serve as an example of prosperity and good government,
Dürer was keen to follow this practice by providing his native city with a special gift. On
the bottom of the panels the artist wrote: “I have been intending, for a long time past, to show my
respect for your excellencies by the presentation of some humble picture of mine as a remembrance;
but I have been prevented from so doing by the imperfection and insignificance of my works...
Now, however, that I have just painted a panel upon which I have bestowed more trouble than on
any other painting, I considered none more worthy to keep it as a memorial than your excellencies.”
The Four Apostles was created during the Reformation, which had started in
1517 and was to have an enormous impact on religious and cultural life in Germany. Due
to the fervid Protestant belief that icons were contradictory to the Word of God, which was held
in the utmost supremacy over Protestant ideas, the Protestant church was not a patron of sacred art.
Therefore, any Protestant artist, as Dürer became, had to commission their own works.
The council gratefully accepted the gift, hanging the panels in the upper government
chamber of the city hall and Dürer was in turn awarded an honorarium of 100 florins.
The four monumental figures, measuring two meters, remained in the municipality of Nuremberg until
1627, when, following threats of repression, they had to be sold to the elector of Bavaria,
Maximilian I, a great enthusiast of the artist’s work. On that occasion, however, the prince had
the inscriptions, at the bottom of the paintings, sawed off and sent back to Nuremberg, as they were
considered heretical and harmful to his position as the sovereign Catholic. The city handed them
over to Munich’s Alte Pinakothek in 1922, where they were rejoined with their respective panels.
The composition represents John the Evangelist, standing on the far left,
holding an open New Testament from which he is reading the first verses of his Gospel. Behind
him is the figure of Peter, bearing the golden key to the gates of heaven. On the other panel,
standing at the back, is the Evangelist Mark, bearing a scroll, while on the far right is Paul,
holding a closed Bible and leaning on a sword, hinting at his execution.
‘The Four Apostles’, witnesses to the faith, function as a warning,
as explained in the inscriptions applied by a calligrapher at the bottom of the panels,
narrating biblical passages from the recent translation of Martin Luther.
These passages contain a reproach to the secular powers not to conceal the divine word in seductive
human interpretation. The viewer should take the warning of the “four excellent men” to heart.
Dürer knew that his support of the Lutheran movement, indicated by the words in the
inscriptions, would have been shared with important and influential citizens.
These panels are Dürer’s last known oil paintings, completed when he was fifty-five years old.
Dürer died a year later in Nuremberg, leaving an estate valued at 6,874 florins — a considerable
sum at that time. His large house, purchased in 1509 from the heirs of the astronomer Bernhard
Walther, where his workshop was located and where his widow lived until her death in 1539, remains a
prominent Nuremberg landmark today, functioning as a major museum dedicated to the artist.