Albrecht Durer: A Legacy Earned

The significance and contribution of Albrecht Durer to the art community is not only amazing but also a source of wonder as to how understated it is. Yet, he was not only collected by enthusiasts but artists, and he was imitated as well.

His woodcuts and engravings were collected from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. They were in the hands of such artists as Italian Renaissance masters as Raphael, Montegna, and Bellini.

Albrecht Durer’s print oeuvre was found in the collections of such dignitaries as Henry VIII of England, King Christian II of Scandinavia, Emperor Maximillian I (of course), Princess Margaret, Regent of the Netherlands, Maximilian’s grandson Charles V, and even the son of Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand.

Raphael’s own masterpiece, Christ Bearing the Cross (c. 1516) borrowed the figure of Christ from Albrecht Durer’s woodcut, Christ Bearing the Cross (1509) from the Small Passion.

Tintoretto, the great Italian Mannerist of the Venetian school, mirrored the Holy Father holding the body of Christ in the Lamentation (c. 1560).

Its source came from Albrecht Durer’s woodcut, Trinity (1511).

El Greco, the Spanish Mannerist also borrowed from Durer’s Trinity, absorbing outlines and content in his work, The Throne of Grace (1577).

Even Rembrandt, the great Dutch painter and printmaker echoed the figure of Christ in his etching, Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple (1638).

Its design came from the Albrecht Durer woodcut (of the same name) from the Small Passion (1509-1511).

Impressive enough; however, one of Albrecht Durer’s most incredible legacies involves the Italian Renaissance master, Michelangelo,  who reportedly told Charles V in a conversation that if he were not Michelangelo he would rather be Albrecht Durer than the Emperor.

Quite a tribute to Albrecht Durer: a legacy earned.

Albrecht Durer: Influence or Prodigy?

There is no doubt in my mind that beyond the guidance of Albrecht Durer’s father and the initial tutelage of Michael Wolgemut, Albrecht Durer was a child prodigy. It is as if he was born to give birth himself to the Northern Renaissance.

At the tender age of thirteen, Albrecht Durer rendered his famous self-portrait in silverpoint by looking at himself in a mirror. This drawing is not only young Durer’s earliest known drawing but attributed to be the first self-portrait in German art!

At thirteen, I was barely able to make it through my Haftorah, and looking in a mirror was almost just as awkward. I was thirtween, caught somewhere between being a boy and a man; and, painting a stick figure was tantamount to using calculus with a paint-by-number scheme.

Yet this child prodigy was also surrounded by influences that would serve to kindle his inspiration and sagacity even more. Albrecht was born the same year that the mathematician, Johannes Muller, developed trigonometry and settled in Nuremberg.

By the time Albrecht was four years old, he found himself surrounded by some of the greatest minds and artisans that inhabited his very neighborhood in Nuremberg. The alter painter and printmaker, Michael Wolgemut lived three doors down from his home; his godfather Anton Koberger had his publishing house in the vicinity; Christoph Von Scheurl, the humanist writer, philosopher and diplomat, and Johanne Neudorrfer, the calligrapher, along with  Hartmann Schedel, the physician, scholar  and cartographer all lived in the neighborhood.

Not a bad way to grow up.

For me, at least, it would be no different than coming home to a Sunday barbecue after playing a sandlot baseball game and seeing Walter Kronkite, Thomas Jefferson, George Putnam and Carl Sagan hanging around the pool sipping on a “Stoli” with my father and discussing the world stage.

So,whether Albrecht Durer was a product of prodigy or influence, I will leave to far greater minds than mine. What I can say for sure can only be reflected in Albrecht’s own words. That “in truth, art is implicit in nature and whoever can extract it has it.”

Albrecht Durer has it!

Excuse My Self-Cultivation

It is difficult to promote or self-cultivate. At least for me, it is.

It is one thing to pontificate the significance and the beauty of one so deserving as Albrecht Durer; or, any number of masters through the ages. But it is quite another to take a step back from what I truly love to do and promote a new offering on Durerpost that I believe will do nothing less than enhance an art lover’s appreciation of art even more.

At least, that is how I justify it to myself.

I have often said that an artist spends a lifetime creating an oeuvre that will be admired through time. But it takes a scholar or enthusiast another lifetime documenting that oeuvre in tomes called, catalogues raisonnnes.

These exhaustive studies are just as important to the collector as they are to the art itself.

There are to date, approximately 1400 catalogues raisonnes in existence and most are housed in an incredible institution called the Wildenstein Institute or indexed on-line at Print Council of America by the artist surname.

The list that is compiled on Durerpost is not as vast, but it is just as informative (and free via opt-in). It is based on the graphic oeuvre of my most favorite artists, including: Durer, Rembrandt, Goya, Whistler, Sisley, Pissaro, Cezanne, Manet, Icart, Gauguin, Maillol, Lautrec, Escher, Vlaminck, Matisse, Renoir, Villon, Erte, Dali, Chagall, Picasso, Braque, Miro, as well as those raisonnes dedicated to watermarks and collectors stamps.

Again, forgive this moment of self-promotion. I do this, so I can return to the matter at hand: to cultivate and promulgate the beauty and mystery of that discipline we call art.

Why Durerpost Products?

I would like to think that the value of Durerpost products and information are self-evident; and they will, eventually promote themselves. But until then, forgive me for giving them a little impetus forward.

Recently at auction (March, to be exact), an Albrecht Durer woodcut, the Annunciation (M. 195, B. 83) from one of his great woodcut cycles,  the Life of a Virgin, was sold at auction for just under $11,000. It was sold as a proof impression before the Latin Text Edition of 1511 with a High Crown watermark (M. 20).

The catalogue raisonne of choice when dealing with Albrecht Durer woodcuts is Joseph Meder’s, Durer-Katalog ein Handbuch Uber Albrecht Durers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, Deren Zustande, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen.

It is a brilliant compilation. Worthy of any collector who collects Albrecht Durer woodcuts and intaglios. It sells for around $100 and can be bought from any of the major rare book house.

It is written, however,  in academic German, which is why Durerpost offers the documentation of Albrecht Durer’s great woodcut cycles in English-translated versions of his catalogue raisonne.

In other words, you can read this: “Prachtvoll, klar, ohne Große Gegensätze, weil ohne Kreuzlage. Unterrand eine Lücke, ebenso im Bergontur zwischen den Flügeln. Vor den weißen Kritzeln in deer untersten Türschwellschattierung (Blasius, Braunschweig). Wz. 62 Ochsenkopf oder 20 Hohe Krone.”

Or, you can read it in English as this: “Magnificent, clear, without large contrasts, because without crosshatching. Bottom edge a gap, likewise mountain contour between the wings. Before the white scribble in the lowest threshold (bottom door sill) shading (Blasius, Braunschweig). Ox Head with Five Petal Flower, Triangle and Two Cross Lines with Single Long Flower Stalk watermark (M. 62) dating the paper from 1441 to 1481(?) — 1519; or, High Crown watermark (M. 20) dating paper from 1480-1525.”

In April of this year, at another major auction house, another Albrecht Durer woodcut, The Whore of Babylon (M. 177, B. 73), from his great woodcut cycle, the Apocalypse, was sold at auction for $34,000.  The high estimate was set at $18,000! It was sold as a proof impression before the German or Latin text edition of 1498. But with this woodcut, it did not have a watermark.

How do you know it was not a later impression without text? Simply, by knowing what the documentation says about this particular impression and examining the art.

In this example, the German reads, “Kräftig, schwarz, auch überschwärzt, ganzrandig bis auf das r. untere eck, Drachenhals- und Mühlsteinlücken beginnend”. Wz. 53 Reichsapfel.

In English the catalogue raisonne reads, “Strong (rich), dark, also overly dark, complete edges to right lower corner, dragon neck (throat) and millstone gaps beginning. Large Imperial Orb with Cross and Star watermark (M. 53) dating the paper from 1497-1520.”

With all due respect, there is some serious money being spent on some historic prints and, you deserve to know what you are buying.

Hundreds of hours have been spent translating Joseph Meder’s definitive research of Albrecht Durer’s print oeuvre into English, and we are proud to disseminate this information as well as share the importance of the artist’s work itself.

So, to answer the title question, why Durerpost products? We hope that the benefits are apparent.

Why the Name Durerpost?

I just finished reading Dan Brown’s latest, The Lost Symbol, and aside from being enthralled with it message, I was also thrilled that he weaved Albrecht Durer’s, Melancholia 1, and his actual monogram into the theme of the book.

Aside from this partiality, he is right, you know. Somewhere along the line of our exponential technological growth we have lost something.

I have been told that there are children who actually cannot read the hands of a wall clock unless it is digital. To be honest, I do not know whether this is urban legend or not. Since I am not the breeding type I am unsure whether to believe this as fiction or fact; however, it would not surprise me.

Aside from the plot of the book, Mr. Brown comments that until the advent of our very recent technology, adepts thoughout the ages used at best, paper, quill, maybe an abacus and most importantly, their minds. Individuals like Newton, Bacon, Copernicus, Galileo, Cavendish, Bohr and even Einstein were able to extrapolate far beyond my comprehension of mathematics and deductive reasoning, theories and abstractions which we hold true today.

One such adept who died over a century before Galileo wrote his treatise on heliocentricity, Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, changing humankind’s view of our universe forever – was the first in Western art to be artist and publisher of his own work. His name was Albrecht Durer; and, he became the first to take his art to market and free himself from the lucrative but restricting shackles of commission work.

In essence, Albrecht Durer became the first graphic artist and changed the landscape of art for all those who followed in his artistic path. He changed the climate of art forever over five hundred years ago with his print oeuvre of woodcuts and intaglios.

That is how and why Durerpost inherited its name. Quite simply, he earned it.

And this, of course, is the bottom line.