Albrecht Dürer was one of the most influential artists of the Reformation, and a great lover of nature, writes Marese Murphy.
At last the hare has got out again. For the past quarter of a century the Albertina museum in Vienna has kept him under zealous wraps for his own protection; but now, for a while, he joins some 200 other prized examples of Albrecht Dürer's art in the Albertina's massive exhibition of the Nuremberg master's work.
"Truly art is within nature," Dürer proclaimed, and went on to prove his point with prolific studies of landscape and animals, and above all with the famous watercolour of the hare.
It seems unlikely that the animal sat for him in the conventional fashion. But the suggestion that a dead creature was his model is trenchantly contradicted by the healthy fur delineated with subtle brushwork, and by the expression of contentment on the subject's whiskery face.
Dürer's genius for facial expression penetrated the animal kingdom as well as our own. His lions are sometimes scowling, others merely sulky, like the tawny creature in the background of a vivid painting of St. Jerome in the desert. There are also lions who look amiable and others still downright bored - to wit the great dozing cat sharing the foreground with a sleeping dog in a meticulously-detailed copper engraving of the holy Hieronymous at home.
The original Dürer collection, which came from the Vienna Albertina from the Hapsburg treasury in 1796, comprised about 400 works - but not for long. Over the next two decades the museum's rascally first curator, Francois Lefèbre, managed to steal half the precious goods, and these were gradually dispersed around the world. Many have now returned for a temporary visit to their ancestral home and are carefully juxtaposed with the Albertina's own remaining treasures to illustrate work in progress in the manner of a picture-book narrative.
This is immediately apparent in a series glorifying that powerful architect of the Hapsburg Empire, Maximilian I. In earlier studies the imperial eyes are surrounded by a ferocious network of wrinkles, but by the time the definitive half-length portrait is achieved, the royal countenance has benefited from a Renaissance air-brushing that minimises unsightly lines, leaving the visage untroubled and calm.
The Emperor's pomp and circumstance are celebrated by a triumphal arch in monumental woodcuts of extraordinary detail. Dürer was only one of the many artists who contributed to the 195 blocks involved, but the "Triumphal Chariot" mounted beside the arch is all his own. Adorned with 22 allegories of virtue, 12 white horses draw the gilded Roman chariot where Maximilian is enthroned above his family with the crown of Charlemagne held over his head. Other works represent victorious knights returning with trophies of battle, mostly the enemy's armour and his personal clothes, and it is clear that there will be wholehearted roistering in camp when they arrive.
While Dürer's preliminary designs generally demonstrate consistency with the finished product, there is occasionally a sharp divergence of detail. This is particularly striking in the version of St. Hieronymous as an old man: "I have taken great pains to paint \ in oils," said the artist, and in the final picture the eyes look out with all the grave wisdom of a lifetime. However, in the initial study the eyes of the 93-year-old man who served as a model are cast down and age weighs more heavily on him.
Living in the era of intense religious fervour that culminated in the bitterness of the Reformation, Dürer inevitably found much of his inspiration in sacred subjects. Two versions of the Passion convey the suffering of Christ with painful conviction, while the Apocalypse sequence is enough to strike terror in the heart of any pious believer.
There is a welcome tranquillity, however, in the master's approach to the Virgin. She gazes with pleasure and profound affection at the Christ child in a copper engraving executed while Dürer was still in his twenties; the child in turn has a solemnity beyond his years.
Later, as he works in colour, the benign influence of Dürer's second visit to Italy, plus his probable acquaintance with Leonardo's art, are reflected in the southern light illuminating the figures in the energetic composition of Jesus Amongst the Doctors. As so often with the artist, the hands of the disputants receive special attention, but despite the brilliant images of their lively gesticulation, none surpasses - or even equals - the overwhelming grace and devout intention of the famous Praying Hands sketched only a few years later.
The Dürer exhibition at the Vienna Albertina continues until November 30th