Page 300 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

its famous park, the Warande. Probably between 3
and 11 July 1521, he drew on this sheet images of
the wild animals kept at the Nederhof. Diirer had
seen the park before, during his first visit to Brus-
sels from 27 August to 12 September 1520, when
he came to see the Aztec treasures exhibited in
the palace. On that occasion he noted in his diary,
"I saw out behind the King's house at Brussels the
fountains, labyrinths, and beast-garden; anything
more beautiful and pleasing to me and more like
7
a paradise I have never seen/ Quite probably the
comparison to Paradise was suggested by all the
wild animals that were kept there, including some
from far-off countries. At this time Diirer made
a topographical sketch of the Warande, which he
inscribed, 'This is the animal park and the plea-
sure grounds at Brussels seen from the Palace"
(Strauss 1974, 4:1932-1933, no. 1520/15).
On the right half of the Williamstown sheet,
Diirer drew, from top to bottom, a sleeping lion-
ess (Panthera leo leo L.), and a baboon (Papio
hamadryas L.), a seated lion (Panthera leo leo L.)
and a young chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra L.),
and a second young sleeping lioness —possibly the
same animal as the one at the top of the sheet. To
the left he drew a lynx (Felix lynx L.) which he
from the period 1502-1503, such as the Hare, the to follow his career in the North (Koreny 1985, incorporated into a landscape. Above he drew
Madonna with a Multitude of Animals, and the 40-41). He has left us both a watercolor study of another topographical view, probably, like the
Large Piece of Turf (all Albertina, Vienna). In a Dead Partridge (British Museum, London) and a lower one, from memory, as it does not seem to
fact, there are great technical and stylistic differ- painting of 1504 portraying a Still Life with Par- represent a Netherlandish scene or a view on the
ences between these drawings and the Blue tridge, Mailed Gloves, and Cross-bow Bolt (Alte Rhine, the landscapes of his 1520-1521 trip. That
Roller. The Hare and the Large Piece of Turf use Pinakothek, Munich). We do not know precisely the landscapes are not simply imaginary can be
warm colors applied with comparatively broad how Barbari came to know of the motif, since deduced from the fact that the fortress and the
brush strokes over a dominant base of watercolor. Pompeii had not yet been discovered, and there curiously arched bridge leading to the mill and to
The Blue Roller, on the other hand, together with is no proof that examples of such paintings from another fort are found reversed and seen from
a companion drawing of the Wing of a Blue Roller classical antiquity survived in Rome. Inter- another angle in an etching by Augustin Hirsch-
(Albertina, Vienna), also dated 1512, is charac- estingly, Lucas Cranach the Elder, who suc- vogel, dated 1545, of a mountainous landscape
terized by body color technique with strong use of ceeded Barbari as painter to the Saxon court in (Washington 1971, 89-90). Unfortunately
the pen and virtuoso technical refinements, the Wittenberg, has left us related representations the exact location of the view has not yet been
whole effect being coolly colorful. The graphic of dead birds. F.K. identified.
detail may be compared with the so-called (Adapted with permission from Little, Brown and The drawing is remarkable for its depiction
"Master Engravings" of 1513-1514 (cats. 196, Company, Boston) of exotic animals, especially the lions and the
198). Moreover, both the Blue Roller and the baboon, animals Diirer seems never to have
Wing of a Blue Roller carry monograms and dates recorded or even seen before his visit to the Neth-
in very different kinds of writing, although both erlands. The baboon is carefully highlighted with
are actually quite in keeping with the signatures blue, gray, and pink washes that define the tex-
on other authentic works by Diirer from the same ^5 ture of its body, the pen being used mainly for
year. The signature on the Wing of a Blue Roller Albrecht Diirer outlines. In an inscription, now partly trimmed,
is typical of those on Durer's contemporary paint- Nuremberg, 1471-1528 Diirer notes that he found it "an extraordinary
ings, while that on the Blue Roller may be com- animal... big, one and a half hundredweight."
pared with those on two drawings of 1512. Since Six ANIMALS AND Two LANDSCAPES Each animal is drawn individually, as in a
the two Roller drawings carry such different types 1521 medieval sketchbook, with a few lines used to
of signatures, both being typical of the time, the pen and ink with colored washes on paper suggest the surroundings, rather in the manner
case for dating them to 1512 seems even stronger 26.4 x 39.7 (io /s x i$ /8) Diirer employed for another drawing from 1521
3
5
(Koreny 1985, 54). references: Washington 1971, 89-91, no. xxvni; with nine studies of Saint Christopher (Strauss
The theme of Durer's drawing was exceptional Strauss 1974,4:1932, 1933, 4:2024, 2025, 1974, 4:2024-2025, no. 1521/14).
for the time. As a rule, earlier fifteenth-century 4:2072-2073, no. 1520/40; Koreny 1985, 166-169, The sleeping lioness on the bottom of the sheet
bird pictures feature living creatures. The motif of no. and pi. 570 is copied in a drawing from Durer's workshop
the dead bird hanging on a wall is known from Sterling and francine Clark Art Institute, now in Warsaw (Koreny 1985,167, no. and fig.
Pompeiian frescoes and may have been brought to Williamstown 573), which has none of the tension of the orig-
Germany by Jacopo de' Barbari, the peripatetic inal. Diirer characterized the form and texture
Venetian master who created the View of Venice During his visit to the Netherlands, Diirer visited of the cat with minute strokes and with greater
(cat. 151) and who departed his native city in 1500 the Coudenberg Palace in Brussels and sketched subtlety. J.M.M.

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 299