Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Dürer's German Renaissance Style of Conspicuous Exactitude

Albrecht Dürer
Portrait of architect Hieronymus von Augsburg
1506
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin

Albrecht Dürer
Portrait of Johannes Kleberger
1526
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Saturn said 
Tell me, King Solomon, Son of David
what are the four ropes that condemn a man?

Solomon said 
That which has happened:
those are the four ropes that condemn a man.

Albrecht Dürer
Head of an Old Man
1521
drawing
Albertina, Vienna

Albrecht Dürer
Dead Blue Roller
ca. 1500-1512
watercolor and bodycolor on vellum
Albertina, Vienna

Saturn said 
Then who judges Christ the Lord
on Doomsday, when he judges all creation?

Solomon said 
Who dares judge God the Savior, who made us from dust,
out of night's wound?  Tell me, what was but was not?

Albrecht Dürer
Nemesis
ca. 1501
engraving
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Albrecht Dürer
Pilate washing his hands
1512
engraving
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Saturn said 
Why can't the sun shine through all creation 
and light it: why does it darken
mountains, moors and much waste ground?  
How does this happen?

Solomon said 
Why isn't earthly reward shared-out 
equally?  One has too little
and longs for good things; through his merit, 
God places him at rest among the Blessed Ones.

Albrecht Dürer
Bearded Saint in a Forest
ca. 1516
drawing
Albertina, Vienna

Albrecht Dürer
Madonna and Child among a multitude of animals
ca. 1503
drawing, watercolor
Albertina, Vienna

Saturn said 
Why do crying and laughter come together
like companions?  They often destroy high-minded contentment  
how does this happen?

Solomon said 
He who likes to worry and grumble
is miserable and cowardly: he disgusts God most.

Albrecht Dürer
The Small Horse
1505
engraving
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Albrecht Dürer
Cowslips
1526
gouache on vellum
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Saturn said 
Why can't we all go
proudly into God's kingdom?

Solomon said  
Neither fire's embrace and frost's chill
nor snow and sun can live together,
nor can age be stirred up.  Whatever has less power
must bend and yield.

Albrecht Dürer
The Men’s Bath
1496-97
woodcut
Art Institute of Chicago

Albrecht Dürer
Lancer on Horseback
1502
drawing
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Saturn said 
Why do the worst live long?
They haven't found greater friendship or family favor
in this world.

Solomon said 
Man cannot avoid the hard journey
through aging, but must endure it. 

Albrecht Dürer
Large piece of turf
1503
watercolor and bodycolor
Albertina, Vienna

Albrecht Dürer
Two lions
1521
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin

Saturn said  
But  how do good and evil happen?
When twins are born from the same woman
their success is unequal. 
One is unlucky on earth; the other lucky,
popular with leaders.
The one lives for a short while,
wanders about this wide creation, then leaves it sadly.
I ask you, Lord Solomon, which has the better lot?

Solomon said 
When she conceives, a mother doesn't decide
what shape the baby's journey will take through the wide world.
She often raises a child to harm,
bringing grief to herself: she suffers
at the harshness of his fate.
Often she keens unstoppably
over that son, when he sets out on some journey
with a restless mind, a weary heart,
a sad soul, slipping easily
into weariness and loss of will.  Deprived of honors,
sometimes this grief-struck ghost avoids the Hall,
living far from people, miserable and anxious. 
His only lord glances quickly away from him.
So a mother has no power over the child's destiny
when she conceives, but from birth
one thing follows another, as is the way of the world.

 from an anonymous Old English text called Solomon and Saturn, translated by Fiona Sampson, printed in The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, edited by Greg Delanty and Michael Matto (New York : Norton, 2011)