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_Symbolism of Albrecht Durers Master Engravings _
By: Kadiva
Albrecht Durer completed the Master Engravings in the years 1513 and 1514.
With these three engravings (Knight, Death, and Devil, St. Jerome in His
Study, and Melencolia I) he reached the high point of his artistic expression
and concentration. each print represents a different philosophical perspective
on the worlds respectively of action, spirit, and intellect. Although Durer
himself evidently did not think of the three as a set, He sometimes sold or
gave St. Jerome and Melencolia I as a pair. In the engraving, Knight, Death,
and Devil, it appears that the hero (the Knight) is gaining a moral victory
over death. (Fig. 1) The Knight has often been interpreted as Erasmuss sturdy
Christian soldier who scoffs at death and the devil as he goes about Gods
work in his journey through life. The conception of the Christian soldier
embodies and ideal of manly virtue which the traditional instincts of the
Germanic race, German mysticism and Northern versions of Renaissance ideals
all contributed to form. The Horse is represented in full profile as to show
off its perfect proportions; it is forcefully modeled so as to give its
perfect anatomy and it moves with regulated step of the riding school so as to
give demonstration of perfect rhythm. The fact that a beautiful setter is
running by the side of the horse completes the picture of the Christian man as
known to the Late Middle Ages the man who armed with faith and accompanied
by religious zeal, symbolized by the faithful hound goes on his way along the
narrow path of earthly life menaced by Death and the Devil. From the gloom of
this rough and dreary scenery there emerge Death and the Devil. Death wears a
regal crown and is mounted on a meager, listless jade with a cowbell; but he
is even ghastlier in that he is not depicted as an actual skeleton but as a
decaying corpse with sad eyes, no lips and no nose. Death also has snakes
encircling his head and neck as he slides up to the Knight and tries in vain
to frighten him by holding up an hourglass while the swine-snouted Devil
sneaks up behind him with a pickaxe. Their failed attempt to capture the
riders attention conveys the idea of unconquerable progress. The 1514
engraving of St. Jerome in his Study is chronologically approximately in the
middle of the group, but it shows the deepest penetration of the subject.
(Fig. 2) The Saint has ceased to be a legendary figure and has become the
symbol of learned existence and felicity. St. Jerome is working at the far end
of the room, which in itself gives the impression of remoteness and peace. His
little desk is placed on a large table which otherwise holds nothing but an
inkpot and a crucifix. Engrossed in his writing, he if blissfully alone with
his thoughts, with his animals, and with his God. The cell, which in previous
versions was always more or less cave-like, cold and drear, has now become a
warm, comfortable, Late Gothic study; the lion is now really a household pet,
blinking peacefully, with a dog asleep at his side. The landscape element is
restricted to the morning sun shining in at the window and intimated by the
great gourd, transformed into a household plant. Even this harmless gourd has
not escaped the attention of the learned seekers after hidden meanings.
Wustmann disinterred the Book of Nature by Konrad von Meggenberg, published
in 1500, and with its aid explained the gourd as a mellow, ideal fruit; the
struggles of its period of bloom are forgotten and it is the symbol of the
Saint who has renounced the world. The skull has been relegated to the
windowsill, where it has no more importance than the books or the cushions.
The slippers, pushed carelessly aside, give a pleasing suggestion of bachelor
habits to the otherwise tidy room. The cardinals hat hangs on the wall and
the gray head of the silent writer is encircled with a halo. Everything
breathes peace even the little tablet bearing Durers monogram and the date
is not standing upright, but is lying on the floor. Durer also explored the
psychological possibilities of methods, which, one would think, is almost
unfavorable to psychological expression, namely, exact geometrical
perspective. The construction of the picture space, impeccably correct from a
mathematical point of view, is characterized, first, by the extreme shortness
of the perspective distance which, if the room were drawn to natural scale,
would amount to only about four feet; second, by the lowness of the horizon
which is determined by the eye level of the seated Saint; third, by the
eccentric position of the vanishing point which is little more than half a
centimeter from the right margin. The shortness of the distance, combined with
the lowness of the horizon strengthens the feeling of intimacy. However, the
vanishing point prevents the small room from looking cramped and box-like
because the north wall is not visible; it gives greater distinction to the
play of light on the embrasures of the windows; and it suggests the experience
of casually entering a private room rather than of facing an artificially
arranged stage. Finally, Durer himself christened his engraving; with the
inscription Melencolia. (Fig. 3) Durer also interpreted two of the
attributes of the seated female figure; he noted down on one occasion: the
key means power; the purse means wealth. Durer has also told us quite clearly
what he understood by melancholy. And we also know something about his
spiritual condition at the time when he made this engraving in May 1514,
after a painful illness, his mother died. The whole conception of melancholy
is thus shifted to a plane wholly beyond the compass of his predecessors.
Instead of a sluggish housewife we have a superior being superior, not only
by virtue of her wings but also by virtue of her intelligence and imagination
surrounded by the tools and symbols of creative endeavor and scientific
research. And here we perceive a second and more delicate thread of tradition
that went into the fabric of Durers composition. In their interpretation of
the Melancolia engraving, the two famous biographers of Durer, Thausing
(1876) and Springer (1892), both deviate from a firm basis of historical
formulation and interpretation imbued with colorless modern spirituality.
Thausing has no doubts whatsoever that the woman sunk in gloomy meditation is
human reason, in despair because she has reached the limit of achievement! She
is the restless, dissatisfied spirit who brings Faust to the point of
confessing that we know nothing. Springer, too, is satisfied with the
explanation that intellectual striving consumes the peace of the soul and
results in deep depression. The critic, Paul Weber thought the Melancolia is
grieved because the old theology is still making brutal use of its power, but
the visible reason of her grief is that all the arts and accomplishments have
failed to satisfy her and bring her happiness. This can only be achieved
through faith. The value of Webers contribution to the study of Durer does
not lie in the interpretation of the figure of Melancolia, but in the fact
that he was the first to make a systematic attempt to explain, by examining
the trend of scholastic thought in Durers time, the accessories of the
Melancolia as attributes of the seven free and seven mechanical arts. The
little boy on a millstone and scribbling on a tablet represents Grammar, the
most elementary of the seven arts; in the mediaeval representations a learner
of the alphabet usually accompanies Grammatica. The scales can be explained as
an attribute of Rhetoric, the source of advice in matters of law; Rhetoric is
therefore in the service of Justice, who holds the scales. The square of
figures is a reference to Arithmetic; the sphere denotes Astronomy, the
compasses Geometry, etc. Weber identifies the flowers in the garland
encircling the head of Melancolia as a type of nightshade, which, according
to the conception of the Late Middle Ages, symbolized a propensity to
solitude. The St. Jerome differs from the Knight, Death and Devil in that it
opposes the ideal the vita comtemplativa to that of the vita activa. But it
differs much more emphatically from the Melencolia I in that it opposes a life
in the service of God to what may be called a life in competition with god
the peaceful bliss of divine wisdom to the tragic unrest of human creation.
While the St. Jerome and the Knight, Death, and Devil illustrate two opposite
methods of reaching a common objective, the St. Jerome and the Melencolia I
express two aritithetical ideals. That Durer conceived of these two prints as
spiritual counterparts within the triad of the Meisterstiche can be
concluded from the fact that he was in the habit of giving them away together
and that collectors looked at and discussed them side by side. No less than
six copies were disposed of as pairs while only one copy of the Melancolia I
was given singly and no impression of the Knight, Death and Devil changed
hands together with either of the two other prints. In the years 1513 and
1514, Albrecht Durer completed what is now known together as the Master
Engravings, Knight, Death, and Devil; St. Jerome in His Study; and Melencolia
I. In general each print represents a different philosophical perspective on
the worlds respectively, of action, spirit and intellect.
_Bibliography _
Bibliography Panofsky, Edwin. The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer. 4th ed.
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1955. Waetzoldt, Willhelm.
Durer and His Times. translated by R.H. Boothroyd. London: Phaidon Press Ltd,
1950.
Word Count: 1583
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