| The spark that had the cumulative effect of uniting art and text in
the new communication of graphic arts was Albrecht Durer. In the 15th century
illiteracy was a fact of life to the masses. Three technological innovations
made possible the beginning of the information age. The invention of movable
type, the development of a cheap method of manufacturing paper and the
improvement of the printng press.
With the advent of the information age of the 15th century the
average man was afforded the opportunity to own books and manuscripts.
This was the dawn of a new and exciting age of information. Information
had been a privilege of the wealthy and the church. Now, the illiterate
man could look at text and pictures and have access to knowledge. Graphic
art could be used to symbolize meanings similar to our modern day use of
icons like the donkey (Republicans) jackass (Democrats) or Uncle Sam (United
States). Keys were depicted in pictures as the symbol of power, a purse
meant wealth, book = logic, sphere= astronomy and scales = the law were
just a few icons. Durer's great legacy is his business acumen in adapting
his artistic ability and the new technologies in a commerical sense. His
artistic skills propel his art like classical music into timelessness.
Durer becomes a product of his time, riding the wave of technology, the
environment of his youth and his wanderjahres (that never seemed to end)
all of which were deeply impregnated in his blood.
Durer's father, Albrecht Durer, the Elder arrived in Nurmeberg
at the age of 28 after many years of travel. At the time of his arrival
Nuremburg was a city of 20,000 inhabitants. Durer's father was a goldsmith
in the city of Nuremberg. Albrecht Durer was the third of 18 children.
When his eldest brother died Albrecht was selected to continue the family
business. He began his apprenticeship with his father, where he must have
achieved his fine skill of the line in the goldsmith art of engraving.
However, he preferred the painting of his neighbor, Wolgemut. Durer requested
and was reluctantly granted the opportunity to apprentice as a painter
with Wolgemut. It was here that Durer received his first introduction to
commerical book making. Wolgenmut and Stephen Wilhelm Pleydenwurff were
in the midst of a collarboration with a printer Anton Kolbeger in the production
of Hartmann Schedel's Chronicle of the World. This manuscript consisted
of hundreds of illustrations utilizing the woodcut method of priniting.
Durer no doubt had an opportunity to merge the goldsmith skill of engraving
with the engraving of woodcuts.
Durer' humanist style was influenced to no light degree by his lifelong
friendship with Pirckheimer. Pirckheimer studied law and the humanities
and was one of Nuremberg's most gifted citizens.
Durer left Nurmeburg at the age of 19 on his Wanderjahre, or wander
years. This is an old German custom of enhancing your trade abilitites.
After serving an apprenticeship a young man would embark on his Wanderjahre
to learn additional skills. This Wanderjahre is depicted in many German
songs similar to "Wer recht in Freuden wanderer will" by Bruhn. In the
year 1490 traveling was no small feat, yet Durer never seemed to tire of
his Wanderhjahres which ultimately cost him his health.
While on his first Wanderjahre, Durer ventured to Colmar in what
is now southeastern France to study with Schongauen, the most famous German
artist of his time. Schonegauen, like Durer, was the son of a goldsmith.
Schonegauen had died the year before and his brother, recommended that
Durer visit his other brother Georg in Basel. It was in Basel that Durer
made his first woodcut of "Letters of St Jerome.
Click on Image for Large Picture
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On a first trip to Venice in October of 1494 he met Giovanni Bellini.
Bellini had a large art studio and produced copious amounts of paintings.
Here, Durer might have seen the greatest opportunity for profit. In his
writings he seems to be consistently concerned about the value of his services.
On his return to Nuremburg he worked for Wolgemut and later opened
his own studio. Now, Durer achieves his own fame with the production of
the Apocolypse woodcuts used in illustrating the last book of the new testament.
The new prinitng press gave Durer widespread distribution as the year 1500
was approaching. This work struck the very souls of the people since at
this time their was a large body of the population that felt the end of
the world was at hand. Now, he did not have to haggle over the price of
one his painitngs for he could produce in volume and in a commercial sense
achieve success.
It would be seem that the spark that was Durer consisted of his
talents as an artist which gave credence to the new art form of graphic
arts. For even Bellini appreciated the skills of Durer when asked that
Durer show him the brush he used in painting his fine lines. As Durer held
up a regular brush, Bellini could not beleive it. Then Durer proceeded
to draw a line and Giovanni Bellini was amazed at the artist's ability.
"You do not understand me aright', if you really regard me
as so inventive....True invention is rare indeed, and the ability to produce
something entirely unprecedented is a unique and wonderful gift. What may
strike one as a new discovery is almost always just a novel combination
of elements already in existence; in fact even the genuine innovator pieces
his story or his picture together by taking his own experience, his thoughts
and memories of what he has himself seen, read or heard, and compressing
them into one unified whole. I know that I am not the least of my craft;
but it would be foolish of me to assume that I have done or discovered
everything of which art is capable. Do you agree that future ages will
be able to depict subjects and express experiences and feelings in ways
of which we now cannot have the remotest conception? Indeed I am convinced,
Durer continued, 'that a man can achieve only what he is capable of, and
that the same is just as true of an entire age.'
And indeed, the current development of the internet and web pages are yet
another crest of a "wave" that pushes graphic art into another amplification
of the 15th century's information age. |
