Week Six: Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer was a very talented young artist that worked primarily out of Germany in the 16^th century. In his painting title simply “Self-Portrait” it is very clearly that he is talented and perhaps even very egotistical. It in it’s self is a standard portrait, framed very well, but there are many oddities that surface when you look in depth. First one will notice is the pose of the painting. Unlike many earlier portraits, which use three-quarter pose, this is straight frontal and very stoic and hieratic. Another oddity is the amount of hubris that simply exudes from this portrait. He signs and dates his piece very boldly using a very light colored pigment on top of a very dark area of the painting. As well the way he paints himself makes it appear very close to northern European paintings of Christ as salvator mundi, which translates to “Savior of the World”(Stokstad 677).

But in all of these peculiar little items, there are answers based on Albrecht’s travels, and his time period. Albrecht had traveled to Italy in the early to mid renaissance so many of his attributes came for those travels. His idea of artists as creators, like God, and intellectuals also came from his travels to Italy. As well the composition of the piece, which is highly, balanced, and uses triangular composition comes from the high renaissance. To explain his hubris even further, he produced a series of work dealing with the Apocalypse that brought him huge international attention.

However, with all the peculiar things about this painting that are explained by his travels to Italy, its ore is heavily rooted in early northern-renaissance art. First we see is a very naturalistic form, rather than idealized. While he is very good looking and could have improved his looks in the painting, we do see imperfections. For example, just under his right eye (left side of the painting) we do see a blemish. This goes to prove this is naturalistic rather than idealized.

But even more northern-renaissance is he use of details, and texture. Albrecht made the skin have a nice soft glow, the hair in the coat is a different texture than his own hair, even as far as differences in his facial hair versus his head hair. He captured each individual texture so greatly in gives the viewer a chance to truly “see” the artist and even feel him through our eyes. Every little detail was thought of, which only furthers our understanding of just how smart Albrecht was. In his hand you see the slight raise on the back of his hand where his veins are. This is a very good example of a truly naturalistic painting.

            One last ting that I want to touch, which I have done with just about every other blog topic this quarter, is the artist’s use of light. Texture is defined by how light is bounced or reflected of it. In his hair we see maybe an oilier reflective surface. But in my mind the key to light in this painting is within his eyes. The watery look e get is from the artists true understanding on how reflects within our eyes. It is this understanding of the mechanics of just about everything that made Albrecht Dürer a revolutionary artist.