BIRMINGHAM.- To mark the last year of a unique five-year collaboration between the
Barber Institute and Royal Collection Trust, a new exhibition - co-curated by eight students studying for an MA in Art History and Curating at the University of Birmingham - showcases a selection of works by the great German Renaissance artist, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528).
The students have chosen highlights of the Royal Collection’s outstanding holdings of Dürer’s work - including 15 prints, 3 drawings and a rare painting - spanning his incredibly productive career as a master innovator.
Dürer’s gifts as a draughtsman, painter and printmaker made him probably the most revered and influential artist of the Northern Renaissance, and this small but intense exhibition comes at a time when there is renewed interest in this remarkable artist, following the critically acclaimed recent show at the National Gallery, London.
Dürer was born in the German city of Nuremberg, a pivotal political and artistic centre of Europe at the time. Here, he took advantage of new printmaking technologies, the growing social mobility of artists, and an expansion in travel and communication. While Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo were establishing themselves as principal players in the Italian Renaissance, Dürer was a key figure in the parallel movement north of the Alps.
The exhibition features an early copy of the famous Nuremberg Chronicle (on loan from the University of Birmingham’s own Cadbury Research Library). Originally published in 1493, the Chronicle was an illustrated world history, in which the contents were divided into seven ages. The workshop of Nuremberg's leading artist, Michael Wolgemut, provided the 1,809 woodcut illustrations and Dürer – then Wolgemut’s apprentice– is believed to have designed some of the illustrations for the ‘Formschneider’, the specialist craftsmen who cut the wood blocks.
Dürer: The Making of a Renaissance Master explores some of the ways that Dürer made his name in 16th century Europe. Fundamental to his success was his mastery of drawing, painting and his elevation of relatively new techniques in printmaking, skills which are superbly demonstrated in the opening section of the show, Mastery of Media. Here, his talent with the pencil, brush, and engraving burin reveals how freely he worked in different media. his etchings were not a success at the time, and he abandoned the medium.
The Barber is displaying a celebrated 1501 engraving depicting Saint Eustace, alongside a charming preparatory drawing of a greyhound, which together represent an unusual opportunity to see Dürer’s creative process in action and marvel at his refined draughtsmanship.
An important figure in the artist’s life was the Humanist scholar and author Willibald Pirckheimer (1470-1530) who was a friend, a patron and a sitter to Dürer. In an engraved portrait of 1524, he wears an expensive fur, denoting his wealth which also funded Dürer’s two-year stay in Venice (1505-07). Indeed, as the scribe for Emperor Maximilian I’s autobiography, Pirckheimer was very well connected, a fact which Dürer used to his advantage, as the second section, The Virtue of Patrons reveals - not least as illustrated by the imposing and rarely shown 1522 woodcut, The Great Triumphal Cart of Emperor Maximilian.
Dürer’s skill and ambition attracted powerful patrons and led to friendships with prominent individuals across Europe, who helped to market his art beyond Nuremberg.
During his time in Venice, Dürer gravitated towards the German merchants who had settled in the city and in 1506 he painted one of them, identified only as ‘Burkhard of Speyer’. Burkhard’s distinctive features - a long, slender nose, high cheekbones and small eyes - are captured in a vivid three-quarter view. The portrait is of particular interest as it melds the latest German and Italian painting styles and the sitter wears Venetian clothes. The use of vibrant colours in semi-transparent layers specifically suggests the influence of Venetian master Giovanni Bellini (c.1431/6-1516) who Durer met, and admired, in Venice. Moreover, the head-and-shoulders format and evocation of light further suggest Bellini's late portrait style. Although renowned for his skill with the brush, here Dürer manipulated and softened the shadows of Burkhard’s nose and neck with his thumb or fingers. The portrait of Burkhard is one of just two autograph Dürer oil paintings in the UK, and the only portrait by him.
The third part of the exhibition, Captivating the Public, shows six very famous prints; one of these, the engraving known as The Sea Monster (c.1498) depicts a woman borne away by the hybrid creature of the title. This enigmatic image appears to have no basis in known literature or mythology. In the distance we see a group of naked women, who have been bathing, while a well-dressed man runs towards the shoreline with his arms aloft in alarm. The central female figure looks back towards them with an anguished expression, while the sea-monster or merman grips her left arm as he carries her away. From this we can deduce that this is a forced abduction rather than a happy elopement. Furthermore, the woman wears a jewelled headdress, indicating wealth and status - another clue, perhaps, that she is to be regarded as a prized asset rather than a romantic heroine. The Sea Monster also bears comparison with Dürer’s rare etching of A Woman Abducted by a Man on a Unicorn – displayed in Mastery of Media - not only for its disturbing theme, but also in that it has no direct relation to known stories or myths.
Towards the end of the show, visitors can view the remarkable book, Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion, [Four Books on Human Proportion] written, designed and edited by Dürer, and the first published attempt to apply the science of human anatomical proportions to aesthetics. Divided into four parts, the first two sections examine the correct proportions of the human form, while the third adjusts these proportions using mathematical rules, with examples of extremely fat and thin bodies, and the final part shows the human figure in motion. Dürer died in Nuremberg in April 1528, just six months before Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion was printed by Hieronymus Formschneyder. The text ends with an elegy to the artist written by his friend, Willibald Pirckheimer.
Robert Wenley, Head of Collections at the Barber Institute says: “There is no better way to conclude what has been an immensely exciting and richly rewarding five-year partnership with Royal Collection Trust than with an exhibition of superlative works by one of the very greatest masters of European art, Albrecht Dürer. To be able to show one of his only two oil paintings in the UK is a particular treat, as is the whole experience of studying up close a fine selection of his exquisite prints and drawings in the intimate context of the Barber’s exhibition space. To this, the student curators have added a fascinating and compelling narrative line that reveals Dürer’s strategies for self-promotion, which so successfully and enduringly made his name.”
Barber Institute Director, Nicola Kalinsky, adds “We are hugely grateful to Royal Collection Trust and to Her Majesty The Queen for the extraordinary opportunities we have been able to offer our talented students these past five years which, in turn, have produced wonderful exhibitions much appreciated by our visitors. This summer we are especially pleased to be sharing a selection of mesmerising works by one of history’s outstanding artists: Dürer: The Making of a Renaissance Master is a fitting finale to a fantastic partnership and an appropriate celebration in this Jubilee year”.
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) is one of the most famous artists of the European Renaissance. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany, where his work remained focused until his death. During his lifetime, Dürer undertook three significant European journeys, along the river Rhine, across the Alps to Italy and, in later life, to the Low Countries. Dürer is seen as the archetypal Renaissance artist of Northern Europe. He had unique skills of observation, was a master narrator and a superb technician. He was a polymath - a writer and theoretician as well as a painter and graphic artist. Influenced by the work of Mantegna, Leonardo and Giovanni Bellini, he in turn influenced many Italian artists through his prints. Dürer explored many questions that preoccupied artists of his time, such as theories of proportion and perspective. He also wrestled with universal issues concerning the meaning and conduct of earthly life, following Martin Luther’s challenges to conventional religious practice.
