Durer
Black and White Masterpieces

Durer and German Renaissance Printmaking
19th March - 16th May 1999

Albrecht Durer is universally acknowledged as Germany's greatest artist. An extraordinary quality of this exhibition is that it places Dürer within the context of his art and time, featuring not only his own work, but that of his immediate predecessors, Schongauer and van Meckenem, and contemporaries like Lucas Cranach, the Elder. The Art Gallery of South Australia, from whom the exhibition is on loan, is fortunate in owning a large collection of old master prints, including 103 by Durer.

The exhibition vividly portrays the art of printmaking from a golden era when Germany led Europe in printmaking technology. Five and a half centuries ago, when Gutenberg perfected the art of printing using movable type, advances were made in a very short space of time. Metal plate printing soon developed to augment woodblock. Trained as a goldsmith, as was Gutenberg himself, Durer was well equipped to understand and explore this new technology.

This period in Germany was one of cataclysmic change. The powerful influence of Lutherism saw the widespread rejection of Roman Catholicism in Germany, in favour of Protestantism. The imaginative and powerful vision of St Michael fighting the dragon reflects the apocalyptic events of the time.

The influence of the Italian Renaissance was sweeping through Europe, introducing new concepts in architecture and the arts. The ideal of the Renaissance man, embracing a view of the world through a synthesis of science and art, is exemplified in Albrecht Dürer. His art, he believed, must be controlled by knowledge. In his masterly print'Nemesis' the nude female form is a combination of his naturalistic observation and his understanding of classical theories of proportion. His dedicated study of equine proportions over a number of years is remarkably portrayed in Knight, death and devil

In Durer's the developments of Gothic art were brought to perfection. However, that elusive quality of beauty, perfected by the Italian artists through years of studying classical sculpture and beautiful models was all but excluded by the traditions of Gothic art. Durer's travels to Italy were intended to broaden his horizons and to learn more about the'secrets' of Italian Renaissance artists.

Travel and contact with other artists was a vital part of an artist's development. The product of Lucas Cranach's wanderings in the northern foothills and forests can be observed in the detailed and lifelike background of The Penance of St John Chrysostom. Durer's own travels as a young man took him in search of the older master, Schongauer.

The son of a goldsmith, like Durer, Schongauer's mastery of the print medium is delightfully demonstrated in the depiction of the folds of clothing in A wise virgin. Disappointingly, Durer found, at the end of his search, that Schongauer had recently died.

Durer's quests for new experience and knowledge contributed, in the end, to his death. On a trip to the Netherlands in 1520 to see a beached whale he contracted malaria from a mosquito bite. Ironically, the whale was washed back out to sea before his arrival. Complications arising from the disease were the cause of his death in 1528.

The prints in this exhibition are fascinating in that they reflect the diverse concerns of their era. The traditional religious themes are interspersed with studies of nature, landscapes, moral allegories and vividly imagined scenes from history and classical literature. The means to mass produce images and to combine them with text contributed hugely to social change. Accessibility, low cost and developing networks of distribution accelerated the exchange of ideas and made artists less dependent on the patronage of the churches and the wealthy. This was the beginning of the modern age.

Almost 20 artists are represented in this comprehensive exhibition. Durer's prominence appropriately marks his status as the pre-eminent German printmaker. He enjoyed success in his own time, achieving renown and wealth by 1505. In 1512 confirmation of his status as Court Painter by Charles V brought with it a handsome pension. He is not the household name that Leonardo or Michelangelo have become, but his images of Rhinoceros, Hare and Hands (although not represented in this exhibition) would be recognised by many who could not name him. The absence of colour in these works is more than compensated by their texture and detail. Beyond his ability as an observer of nature Dürer also had that rare gift of depicting something he had never seen with perfect credibility.

Ronnie Kelly

This exhibition was held at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery in the Botanic Gardens.