Page 292 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

are predetermined as simple fractions of the total of a series of figure studies by Diirer, depicting gloss on the narrative. The parrot, for example,
body length. The chest and pelvis of the figure are Apollo and other classical gods, based on the symbolizing the virgin birth of Christ, is the anti-
schematized as a square and a trapezoid and are Apollo Belvedere (Vatican Museums), which had dote to the diabolical serpent, whose guile precipi-
set at opposed angles to the central axis of the been discovered in Rome in the late fifteenth tates the Fall. Adam and Eve's relationship at this
figure. Diirer's intention was to use this geomet- century. critical moment is paralleled by that of the cat and
rical construction to create, in almost mechanical When Diirer decided he was ready to embody mouse in the foreground, while the ibex perched
fashion, the classical contrapposto pose, which his studies in a published image, however, he on the cliff at the upper right is a traditional
differentiates the figure's weight-bearing leg from changed the subject from the secular to the reli- symbol for the unbelieving.
its free leg, raising the shoulder above the free leg gious, choosing a Biblical story in which nudity The presence of the other animals reflects a
and the hip above the standing leg. Diirer even was justified by the subject matter. He was twelfth-century scholastic doctrine that related
attempted to construct a number of the figures' apparently concerned that his audience might not the Fall of Man to the theory of the four humors
contours, which follow arcs drawn with theicompass. be ready to accept classical nudity presented for its or temperaments. Before the Fall man had a
While Durer's earliest constructed female nudes own sake. He combined the two separately con- perfectly balanced constitution, rendering him
have a Gothic lilt, he seems soon to have realized ceived male and female images into one composi- immortal and sinless. As a consequence of Orig-
that a genuinely classical figure required a clas- tion, a circumstance that accounts for the self- inal Sin this equilibrium was shattered; his body
sical model as well as a Vitruvian scheme of pro- contained character of each figure. Diirer did alter became susceptible to illness and death and his
portions. By 1503, he seems to have had access to Adam's pose in an attempt to bring the figures soul to vices, caused by the preponderance of one
a drawing after a classical statue, perhaps a figure into an active relationship with each other, chang- or another of the humors. Animals, however, were
resembling the Medici Venus (Uffizi, Florence), ing the balanced classical stance of his earlier mortal and "vicious" even before the Fall, and in
to judge from the fact the close predecessors of studies into an energetic forward stride. He also the engraving the elk denotes melancholic gloom,
the Eve have an equilibrium and a genuinely sta- enriched the scene with numerous symbolic the rabbit sanguine sensuality, the cat choleric
tuesque quality. Adam is the direct descendant details that, taken together, constitute a learned cruelty, and the ox phlegmatic sluggishness.
J.A.L.

196

Albrecht Diirer
Nuremberg, 1471-1528
KNIGHT, DEATH, AND DEVIL
1513
engraving
5
2
24.6 x 19 (9 /s x /2J
7
references: Sandrart 1925, 64; Panofsky 1948, i,
151-154; Karling 1970, 1-13; Washington 1971,
143-145, no. 58; Meyer 1978, 35-39; Scalini 1984,
15-18
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of
W. G. Russell Allen
Bearing the date 1513 on the tablet at the lower
left (the "S" preceding the year probably stands
for Salus, as in Anno salutis [in the year of
grace]), this is the earliest of the three prints tra-
ditionally known as Durer's "master engravings."
The other two, Saint Jerome in his Study and
Melencolia i (cats. 198 and 199), are dated 1514.
Although Diirer did not refer to them as a set,
their similarities of date, style, and complexity
have led scholars to interpret them as complemen-
tary subjects.
From a formal point of view, the Knight, Death,
and Devil represents Durer's definitive statement
on the ideal proportions of the horse. The motif of
the mounted knight in armor can be traced back
to his watercolor study of 1498 (Graphische Sam-
mlung Albertina, Vienna), but the idealized horse
in full profile shows the further development of
Durer's studies reflected in the engravings of
Saint Eustace and the Small Horse of 1505. The
type of horse looks directly to Italian art, to
famous mounted warriors like Verrocchio's Col-

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