Page 109 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

above left:
fig. 26. Leonardo da Vinci, Study of a Leaping
Horse, c. 1481, metalpoint. Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth n, Royal Library, Windsor Castle
center:
fig. 27. after Leonardo, Horse's Head.
Engraving. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth n,
Royal Library, Windsor Castle
right:
fig. 28. Albrecht Diirer, Studies of Horses.
1517, pen and ink, fol. 175^ Dresden Sketch-
book. Sachsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden

In Diirer's view, the artist with true "under- (cat. 184), but the motivating forces behind the hand, the artist-scientist's role is to extract the
standing" should not stop with a mastery of the portrayals are rather different. Diirer's analysis underlying causes of natural law behind the
human figure; he was to comprehend all nature. is dedicated to describing the formal irregu- effects and to remake nature according to these
Like Leonardo, Diirer intended to extend his larities that arise in this particular corner of absolute and impersonal principles,
studies of proportions to horses, and the Dres- nature, with its tangled stems, mingled roots, Nowhere are the two artists' different views
den Sketchbook again indicates his direct famil- and soggy mud. Leonardo, by contrast, charac- of the role of the individual artist more vividly
iarity with Leonardo's designs. In this instance, teristically uses his graphic representation as a apparent than in their representation of
early engravings of Leonardo's horse studies way of expressing the general laws of plant "visionary" scenes. If we set Diirer's watercolor
have survived and provide examples of the kind structure and patterns of growth that lie behind of one of his "dreams" beside one of Leonardo's
of prototypes that were accessible to Diirer. The the effects visible in the particular specimen. so-called Deluge Drawings (cat. 188), the
result of his studies was to combine the kind of Diirer's studies of nature, whether of minute divergence is clear. The signed note beneath
proportional control exercised by Leonardo with details or complete scenes, speak of the artist Diirer's drawing describes how he saw in his
his own graphic vigor and with the remarkable absorbed in the textures of nature, responding sleep on Whitsunday night a terrifying vision
sense of surface detail exhibited in his master- with astonishing freshness to the transitory of "great waters" falling from heaven: "When
engraving, Knight, Death, and Devil (cat. 196). beauties of the passing times of day and sea- the first water that touched the earth had very
Diirer applied an equally intensive scrutiny to sons. Leonardo was similarly fascinated by the nearly reached it, it fell with such swiftness,
the inanimate and most modest parts of God's fleeting effects of atmospheric phenomena (cat. with wind and roaring, and I was so sore afraid
creation. He devoted no less an effort of con- 169), but we can always sense his obsession that when I awoke my whole body trembled and
centrated attention to an apparently unprepos- with the processes involved and with the optical for a long while I could not recover myself. So
sessing tuft of grasses and plants in his Piece of laws governing their appearance. For Diirer, the when I arose in the morning I painted it above
Turf than to his own facial features in one of his ravishing effects speak eloquently of the "mean- here as I saw it. God turn all things to the
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self-portraits. His intensity of observation ing" of the world, and the artist's role is to act best." Diirer was much taken with the inter-
yields nothing to Leonardo's closely focused as an informed individual conduit for God's pretation of natural phenomena as portents —as
studies of plants, such as the Star-of-Bethlehem painting of nature. For Leonardo, on the other signs of God communicating through nature —

108 CIRCA 1492