A
Rhinoceros
(pen and ink drawing, 1515)
British
Museum
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. His pen and ink drawing above of an Indian
rhinoceros is a typical example of this type of work.
Dürer's
drawing 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."
Now
you can try out 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
