Straddling the 15th and 16th centuries, between Nuremberg in the heart of the Holy Roman Empire and opulent Venice, a man observes himself in his mirror by candlelight and, in twelve self-portraits, revolutionizes art and the very notion of the artist.
He is innocent like a child, narcissistic like youth, handsome like a prince, emaciated and heartbreaking like the man who watches himself grow old and sees death approaching.
His line is mathematically precise.
His esoteric symbols, punctuated in his engravings, like his famous
Melencolia I
from 1514 with its pensive angel of undetermined gender, the tools of geometry, the title of the work carried by a small dragon, are a rebus that generations of art historians continue to decipher with delight.
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) is this "Genius of the North" inspired by the Italian masters, this man tormented by faith, ultimately saved by a certain Martin Luther.
Devilish Precision
“He is a businessman like Jeff Koons, a strategist like Andy Warhol, a brilliant jack-of-all-trades like Picasso, eccentric like Dali. Five centuries before them!”
, brilliantly summarizes
Albrecht Dürer.
The Mystery of Self-Portraits
, a fascinating documentary written and directed by Frédéric Ramade for Arte.
This film looks like a mystery report that goes back in time.
How did this son of a goldsmith from Nuremberg become the undisputed master of German painting?
By this idea of himself which takes him out of the frame and releases man from his status as a simple creature of God.
This marvelous draftsman signed his first self-portrait at 13, a charming face with his almond-shaped eye and his cute mouth, instinctively correcting the distortion induced by the mirror.
He works in silverpoint, the technique is terribly virtuosic which supposes waiting for the silver to oxidize so that the lines become a drawing, like the photo which appears in the bath of developer, and allows no repentance.
At 19, he painted a masterful double portrait of his parents, now in Venice and Nuremberg.
But it's engraving,
a very young technique invented barely fifty years earlier, which particularly interests him since it can be reproduced and made to travel.
The printing revolution gave him the opportunity to make a name for himself and build a solid business.
The monogram, a real logo, will make it a product.
intimate album
From the municipal museums of Nuremberg to the Albertina in Vienna, from the Alte Pinakothek in Munich to the University of Zurich, five eminent specialists of Dürer comment with passion on the work whose strange beauty fascinated its time and astonished by its presence striking only by its diabolical precision.
They talk about it with fire and vivacity, as if all their knowledge were the raw material of the novelist.
They have looked so much at Dürer's 12 self-portraits, read so much about this Renaissance from the North and the South, compared their contributions to each other, that they naturally open this intimate album.
In his second self-portrait, Dürer depicts himself drawing from life with a mirror.
He becomes aware of his singularity in this idea of "the artist at work", lives his "ego moment".
He was then an apprentice in Basel,
harsh realism
In his third self-portrait, he faces us, index and middle fingers folded over his thumb, in a gesture that distinguishes man from animal.
The Portrait of the artist holding a thistle
in 1493, treasure of the Louvre, refers to the symbol of God and submits Dürer to his destiny.
In the
Self-Portrait with Gloves
, made at the age of 26 in 1498, Dürer, who had discovered Venice, painted himself as a prince in clothes of unheard of luxury, compared to the habits of his strict Nuremberg.
The painting, offered by the Bavarian city to Charles I of England, was then purchased by Philip IV of Spain.
He has been at the Prado since 1827.
The Self-Portrait in a Fur Coat
, painted in 1500, just before his 29th birthday, is triumphant.
But the one drawn at 51, although still beautiful, is cruelly realistic, with its soft belly, an almost Christ-like nudity.
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