Animals in Art

Albrecht Dürer was originally taught to draw by his father. As a goldsmith to trade, he seems to have implanted his craft's appreciation of fine detail into the young artist. Although Dürer, a German from Nuremberg, became one of the greatest painters of the Northern Renaissance, he is equally famous for his body of graphic work in printmaking and illustration.

Dürer was one of the first artists to view animals as a subject worthy of attention. At the beginning of the 16th century, the natural world of animals and plants was becoming a focus of interest as explorers and travelers were returning from distant lands with examples and illustrations of new species. Dürer shared this fascination for the subject which he revealed in many of his drawings, watercolours and prints.

 

 

A Rhinoceros
(pen and ink drawing, 1515)
British Museum

Dürer's pen drawing of an Indian rhinoceros is a typical example of his interest in animals. The image of the rhinoceros is based on some notes and a sketch by an unknown artist. He never saw the actual creature in real life which accounts for its anatomical errors.

 

 

A Rhinoceros
(woodcut print, 1515)

Dürer's drawing of the rhinoceros served as a sketch for a woodcut print of the beast. It is facing in the opposite direction as the printing process reverses the image. Dürer enhances the public mythology of the rhinoceros by drawing the folds of its skin like plates of armour and adding an extra horn to its back. A rough translation of the inscription above the image reads, "On the first of May in the year 1513 AD, the powerful King of Portugal, Manuel of Lisbon, brought such a living animal from India, called the rhinoceros. This is an accurate representation. It is the colour of a speckled tortoise, and is almost entirely covered with thick scales. It is the size of an elephant but has shorter legs and is almost invulnerable. It has a strong pointed horn on the tip of its nose, which it sharpens on stones. It is the mortal enemy of the elephant. The elephant is afraid of the rhinoceros, for, when they meet, the rhinoceros charges with its head between its front legs and rips open the elephant’s stomach, against which the elephant is unable to defend itself. The rhinoceros is so well-armed that the elephant cannot harm it. It is said that the rhinoceros is fast, impetuous and cunning."

Try our lesson on Drawing a Rhino

 

 

A Young Hare
(watercolour and gouache on paper, 1502))
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Animals were not generally considered to be appropriate subjects for serious art until the eighteenth century when George Stubbs elevated the genre by the sheer quality of his work. Critics felt that the painting of animals was simply a demonstration of technical skill, and as such did not aspire to the creative vision of great art. Dürer demolishes this opinion in a series of watercolours that have become hugely popular and frequently reproduced images. ‘A Young Hare’ is one of the best.

‘A Young Hare’ is painted for the sheer enjoyment that Dürer experienced in creating images and it is this pleasure that we experience when looking at it. The life and vitality of the creature is a testament to Dürer's skill as an artist as it was probably drawn from a stuffed model. This is a virtuoso piece of watercolour illustration that demonstrates the intensity of an artist’s vision when executed with a total control of his medium.

To begin the work, Dürer lightly sketched the image and underpainted it with some washes of brown watercolour. Then he patiently built up the texture of the fur with a variety of dark and light brushstrokes in both watercolour and gouache (an opaque form of the medium). Gradually, the painting is brought to completion with the addition of a few refined details such as the whiskers and the meticulous reflection of a window in the creature's eye. Finally, the artist dated and signed the work with his famous monogram - a mark of his approval.

Ironically it was Dürer's interest in the animal world that led to his death. On a trip to the Netherlands in 1520, it is believed that he contracted malaria in the swamps of Zeeland when traveling to see a beached whale. He died in 1528 as a result of the disease.

 

Albrecht Dürer Notes

 

• Dürer's oil paintings, watercolours and drawings show a very detailed technique done with painstaking skill.

• Dürer is as famous for his graphic printmaking and illustration work as he is for his great paintings.

• Dürer was one of the first artists to view animals as a subject worthy of attention.

• Dürer always signed his work with his distinctive monogram: