Apelles Vagabundus

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[ cat. 3.9 ] Alberto Du re ro Jess entre los doctores, 1506
Apelles Vagabundus. Los viajes de Alberto Durero, del aprendizaje a la rivalidad Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca
Alberto Durero es el primer artista de la historia que nos ha dejado una serie orgnica de autorretratos y un importante conjunto de textos autobiogrficos. De entre stos, los referentes a sus viajes suponen un aspecto nico en el arte del Renacimiento europeo. No existe una experiencia viajera semejante en ningn artista anterior ni contemporneo a l: no slo viaj mucho ms que cualquiera de ellos, sino que abord su peregrinaje con unos fines completamente diversos y modernos, dibujando de continuo (y a veces pintando al leo) como medio de registrar sus impresiones e ideas nacidas bajo el estmulo de la alteridad1. Estos deseos derivaban, en primer lugar, de la propia naturaleza de su ciudad natal. Nuremberg, en poca de Durero, estaba literalmente en el centro de las rutas del comercio internacional. Todo lo que llegaba desde tierras exticas hasta Venecia con destino al norte de Europa pasaba por all. Tan constante trfico sin duda ampli las miras y horizontes de sus ciudadanos, tan apasionados por el cosmopolitismo como los humanistas y cientficos que acudan a la urbe de todas partes atrados por su animada vida cultural, por su antigedad, tamao y riquezas2. El crculo de intelectuales que rodeaba al artista, encabezado por Conrad Celtis y Willibald Pirckheimer, tambin debi contribuir a estos nimos, y le hara forjar amistades que mantuvo por correspondencia y a travs de sus viajes3. das de artistas, es una de las fuentes que atestiguan el primer viaje que emprendi, un mes antes de cumplir diecinueve aos:
Cuando termin mi servicio, mi padre me envi fuera y estuve lejos cuatro aos hasta que l me llam de nuevo. March en 1490 despus de Pascua (sbado, 11 de abril), y volv en 1494, despus de Pentecosts (domingo, 18 de mayo)4.
el viaje de oficiala: c o l m a r, b a s i l e a , e s t r a s b u r g o (1490-1494) La Crnica familiar de Durero, una genealoga de sus ancestros escrita por l en 1524 que incluye elementos autobiogrficos y constituye un hito dentro de las Vi-
1. 2.
Friedlnder 1902, pp. 1-4. Vanse, en ese sentido, por ejemplo, las opiniones del caballero andaluz Pero Tafur, que viaj por Europa Central entre otros lugares a mediados del siglo xv (Tafur 1995, pp. 142-143). ste y otros comentarios en Evans 2002. White 1971. VaseLebenszeugnisse: Familienchronik, en Durero 2000a, p. 1611.
5. 6.
Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, pp. 294-295. Vasari 2002, pp. 746-747. No por casualidad, Vasari atribuy la autora de la estampa de Schongauer (las Tentaciones de San Antn) a Durero; en la giuntina ya se adscribe inequvocamente a Schongauer (Vasari 1998, pp. 11-12). En la identificacin de los dibujos de Durero, seguimos con preferencia Winkler 1936-1939. En su defecto, citamos a Strauss 1974.
3. 4.
7.
Este viaje de oficiala (Wanderfahrt o Wanderjahre) se prolong entonces por cuatro aos, bastante ms de lo comn en esta obligacin para todo artesano, que se estimaba en uno o dos, y a una distancia tambin mucho mayor. Dicha costumbre tardomedieval, an hoy practicada en ciertas profesiones en Alemania, permita que los jvenes aprendices acrecentaran su experiencia profesional lejos de su lugar de origen, y al tiempo encontrasen eventuales contactos profesionales que pudieran serles de utilidad en su futuro laboral. No ha sobrevivido si es que alguna vez existi ningn diario o epistolario asociados a este periodo, pero parte del mismo puede reconstruirse con ayuda de las obras de arte fechadas en estos aos y el anlisis de algunos testimonios sueltos, particularmente los del abogado nuremburgus Christoph Scheurl, uno de los amigos humanistas de Durero5. En Nuremberg, con su maestro Michael Wolgemut, el artista seguramente se form en los rudimentos de la pintura sobre tabla y en el diseo de entalladuras; de su padre aprendera a dibujar y a manejar el buril, aunque no con la maestra que aspiraba a alcanzar y que slo Martin Schongauer pareca poder proporcionarle. La obra grfica de Schongauer era admirada e imitada en toda Europa, incluida Italia, donde hasta Miguel ngel copiara en su juventud una estampa suya6. Durero debi de partir con cartas de recomendacin de su padre y de su padrino, Anton Koberger, el principal editor de Alemania por entonces. Es muy probable que viajase en uno de los convoyes comerciales de Koberger hasta Frankfurt. En alguno de estos lugares conocera la obra del llamado Maestro del Libro de Casa, cuyo estilo demostr asimilar en dos dibujos de la Sagrada Familia (w.25 y w.30)7 y otro de una Joven pareja (w.56), que hizo a pluma durante el viaje [fig. 5.1].
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[Fig. 5.1] Alberto Du re ro Joven pareja, c. 1492 Pluma y tinta marrn. 258 x 191 mm Hamburgo, Hamburger Kunsthalle [inv. 23918] [Fig. 5.2] Alberto Du re ro El poeta Terencio Pgina de ttulo de las Comedias de Terencio, c. 1492 Xilografa a fibra. 230 x 143 mm Basilea, Kunstmuseum, Kupferstichkabinett
Durero lleg a la ciudad alsaciana de Colmar, lugar de residencia de Schongauer, a comienzos de 1492. Para su desgracia, ignoraba que el que pretenda fuera su mentor haba muerto casi un ao antes, el 2 de febrero de 1491, probablemente a causa de la peste. En Colmar, sin embargo, pudo llevar parcialmente a cabo su propsito, pues fue acogido por los hermanos de Schongauer (los orfebres Caspar y Paul y el pintor Ludwig), quienes le permitieron estudiar la obra del difunto maestro, la cual empleara Durero como fuente de inspiracin a lo largo de toda su vida8. Ludwig, en concreto, le debi de ofrecer al menos unas nociones generales sobre las destrezas necesarias en un artista aspirante a convertirse en un pintor-grabador reconocido9. Segn las guas de viaje de la poca, como la de Erhard Etzlaub (c. 1500)10, Durero cruzara Friburgo, Breisach y Constanza hasta llegar a su siguiente destino, Basilea, donde fue recibido en la Haus zum Tanz por otro hermano de Schongauer, de nombre Georg y tambin orfebre acreditado. All firm un taco de madera destinado a la portada de las Epstolas de San Jernimo editadas por Nikolaus Kessler el 8 de agosto de 1492, consistente en una tosca entalladura elaborada por un cortador annimo sobre un dibujo de Durero y que muestra al santo en su estudio extrayendo la espina de la pata del len (dw.261.1)11. Durante su estancia basiliense traz ms de un centenar de dibujos destinados a las
xilografas de una edicin de las Comedias de Terencio [fig. 5.2], slo abiertas en parte por adelantarse otro editor con la publicacin de dicho ttulo en 1493 (st.1492/4-128). Tambin colabor diseando entalladuras para otras publicaciones relacionadas con el editor Johann Bergmann von Olpe, destacando Der Ritter vom Turn, de Marquart von Steyn, basado en el original francs de Geoffroy de La Tour-Landry (dw.263.1-45), o La nave de los locos, de Sebastian Brant (dw.266.1-78)12. En 1493 culmin su oficiala subiendo en barco por el Rhin hasta Maguncia y Estrasburgo. En esta ltima ciudad trabaj probablemente en el taller de Wolfgang Beurer (o Peurer)13, del cual pint su retrato y el de su mujer. Durero se autorretrat en varias ocasiones durante su Wanderjahre, en esas famosas imgenes en las que comparten espacio su mirada escrutadora y su mano, de 1491 y 1493 (w.26 y w.27)14. Su primer Autorretrato al leo conocido (a.10) [fig. 5.3]15 lo pint precisamente en Estrasburgo aquel ao de 1493, como se sabe por el uso del dialecto local en la inscripcin que lo acompaa. Resulta verosmil que se trate de un retrato de esponsales, funcin sealada por el cardo marino que sostiene entre sus dedos el artista (smbolo de masculinidad y dotado de propiedades afrodisacas), y por el soporte original en pergamino hoy transferido a lienzo, que permitira su transporte en un rollo hasta Nuremberg16.
Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento
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Ignoramos dnde estuvo Durero durante el ao y medio que pas desde su partida de Nuremberg hasta la llegada a Colmar. Se ha afirmado que pudo ir a los Pases Bajos17, lo cual nos parece muy tentativo. Aunque su padre se form all18, Durero mir preferentemente a Italia en busca de formacin e ideas, estilsticamente distintas y bien contrastadas con las que fluan en el norte de Europa. Slo al final de su vida se dirigira a los Pases Bajos, y por motivos distintos a los que le impulsaron durante sus primeros viajes.
[Fig. 5.3] Alberto Du re ro Autorretrato, 1493 leo sobre pergamino adherido a lienzo. 56 x 44 cm Pars, Muse du Louvre [inv. r.f 2382]
8. 9.
Winzinger 1972. Borchert 200la.
14. Vase, sobre estos autorretratos, Checa 1993, pp. 24-27. 15. Las pinturas se catalogan aqu conforme a las propuestas de Anzelewsky 1991. 16. Wilson 1995. 17. Vase Schrer 1937, seguido de Evers 1972 y Chtelet 1975, entre otros. 18. Vase Lebenszeugnisse: Familienchronik, en Durero 2000a, p. 1608. 19. Austin 1983, pp. 46-48. 20. Durero, adems, diseara para Schreyer una medalla retrato en 1512. Vase Baraano 1983, pp. 294-295.
10. English 1996. 11. Para la obra grfica de Durero citamos segn la numeracin de Schoch / Mende / Scherbaum 2001-2004.
12. Eichberger 1996. 13. Esta hiptesis de Strocka 1972, sin embargo, dista de haber concitado apoyos unnimes. En Estrasburgo, Durero realiz una entalladura (dW.264.1) para el Missale speziale de Johann Grninger, publicado all el 13 de noviembre de 1493.
e l p r i m e r v i a j e a i ta l i a ( 1 4 9 4 - 1 4 9 5 ) El 18 de mayo de 1494, Durero acudi a la llamada de su padre, quien haba dedicado los ltimos meses a concertar su matrimonio. Volvi de Estrasburgo a Nuremberg por el camino ms directo, a travs de Suabia. El lunes 7 de julio se llev a trmino el acuerdo matrimonial, por el cual Hans Frey entregaba al artista a su hija Agnes y una dote de doscientos florines. No slo era normal celebrar los matrimonios en esta poca como un negocio ms que en el caso de Durero supuso un claro ascenso social por va de sus suegros, sino que el Consejo municipal de Nuremberg no le hubiera permitido abrir taller independiente de no estar casado; no pareca mala contrapartida a cambio de la exencin de las disposiciones sobre la competencia de las guildas de artesanos, prohibidas en Nuremberg desde el siglo xiv. Esto si bien le priv de las ventajas proteccionistas del rgimen gremial, tambin le procur una gran independencia a la hora de adoptar los sistemas de negocio que considerase oportunos, abrir nuevos mercados y tener elevadas aspiraciones socioeconmicas19. A comienzos de otoo de aquel mismo ao, y acaso financiado con parte de la dote de su esposa, Durero emprendi un viaje de formacin a Italia, algo sin precedentes para un artista alemn. Los nicos casos conocidos de artistas del norte viajeros por Italia que no establecidos all eran los de peregrinos visitantes en Roma por motivos religiosos o los de acompaantes de embajadas diplomticas. Despus de que l indicara el camino a seguir, muchos otros artistas y aficionados al arte procedentes de Europa central y septentrional encontraran obligatorio el viaje italiano. En este primer viaje de Durero en pos del clasicismo de la antigedad debieron de influir suplementariamente sobre l los consejos del humanista nuremburgus Sebald Schreyer, amigo de su padre20, y la epidemia de peste que por entonces azotaba Nuremberg. El temor al contagio tambin pudo ser catalizador de sus posteriores viajes de 1505 y 1520, aunque no causa primera, ya que el artista en ninguno
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de sus escritos mencionara aspecto alguno remotamente conexo con la enfermedad. Durero estuvo en Venecia medio ao, desde la primera quincena de octubre de 1494 hasta la primavera de 1495. A diferencia de su segundo viaje por tierras cisalpinas, del que ha sobrevivido un epistolario, este primero slo est documentado por los dibujos y acuarelas que hizo de temas italianos y por un par de referencias escritas que aluden indirectamente a su periplo21. Pero esto ya es mucho; recordemos que de su Wanderjahre no se conserva testimonio artstico que d cuenta incontrovertible de lo que vio o de las personas que conoci entonces. El artista debi de partir hacia Italia a finales de agosto de 1494 o un poco despus, quiz con uno de los convoyes encaminados al Fondaco de Tedeschi, localizado junto al Puente de Rialto. Venecia, la gran metrpoli comercial del Mediterrneo, ofreca las ventajas de la presencia de una importante colonia alemana de mercaderes, procedentes sobre todo de Augsburgo y de Nuremberg, que sin duda le facilitara las cosas a Durero, lingstica y econmicamente hablando. La curiosidad y el ansia de conocimiento de la naturaleza es algo que compartieron Leonardo y Durero, con un afn semejante por el dibujo mimtico y anticipndose a los estudios sistemticos de filosofa natural que arraigaran a mediados del siglo xvi22. La atencin del alemn por representar del natural las plantas y animales ms raros est testimoniada de continuo en su trabajo. Sus primeros dibujos venecianos incluyen las acuarelas de un bogavante (w.91) y un cangrejo de mar (w.92) [fig. 5.4], unas criaturas que resultaran muy exticas a ojos de un vecino de Nuremberg una de las ciudades ms continentales de Europa que probablemente antes nunca haba visto el mar. Tambin siempre le atrajeron mucho las variedades de indumentaria de los lugares que conoci, y se conservan numerosos estudios suyos de capas, mantos y toda clase de vestidos extranjeros de las formas ms sorprendentes. Tom as apuntes de doncellas patricias venecianas (w.69), en algn caso en comparacin con la vestimenta local nuremburguesa (w.75)23. Dibuj varios estudios de orientales (w.79-81) [fig. 5.5], sacados de los cuadernos que Gentile Bellini rellenara en su viaje a Estambul (1479-1481)24, remedando algunas figuras de un modelo preparatorio (w.78) para la Procesin del Corpus Christi en la Plaza de San Marcos (terminada en 1496) que pudo ver en el obrador de Gentile antes de su traslado a la Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista25. El primer viaje a Italia proporcion a Durero su primera oportunidad de estudio del desnudo a la clsica26. Durante aquel invierno retraz con variaciones, para fa-
miliarizarse con las formas allantica27, los grabados de Mantegna de la Bacanal con Sileno (w.59) y la Batalla de los tritones (w.60), que ilustraban sendos pasajes de Diodoro y Virgilio28. En Mantegna y en Ovidio bas tambin su Muerte de Orfeo (w.58) [fig. 5.6], que Joachim von Sandrart posea en 166929, y la hoja de variaciones sobre el tema del Rapto de Europa, donde aparecen un oriental con turbante al estilo de los de Bellini, una especie de marmita, copias de una cabeza escultrica de un len (de San Marcos?) y un Apolo de estilo lisipeo (w.87). El artista alemn estudi la Batalla de desnudos de Antonio Pollaiuolo y a partir de sta dibuj un Rapto de las sabinas (w.82) con parejas dimensiones y exagerada musculatura30. Con todo ello, Durero estaba predicando con el ejemplo, pues en su futuro Manual de la pintura recomendara a los jvenes aprendices empezar copiando el trabajo de los buenos artfices hasta que la mano adquiriese libertad31. En 1495 est fechado un dibujo a tinta (w.85) que es el estudio ms antiguo de desnudo femenino ad vivum que ha llegado hasta nosotros32. Figurado en contrapposto y apoyado en un bastn, este Desnudo femenino de espaldas se diferencia de otras piezas durerianas anteriores como la Mujer desnuda (w.28) de 1493, carente de modelo real por un nuevo inters por la belleza del cuerpo humano, su medida y proporciones, que acompaara al artista hasta su muerte en 1528. Se ignora a qu otros lugares de Italia pudo ir Durero aparte de a Venecia, aunque se han apuntado po-
[Fig. 5.4] Alberto Du re ro Cangrejo marino, 1495 Acuarela. 263 x 355 mm Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen [inv. 1958/t30] [Fig. 5.5] Alberto Du re ro Tres orientales, c. 1494-1495 Pluma, tinta marrn y aguada marrn. 416 x 281 mm Londres, The British Museum [inv. 1895-9-15-974]
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21. Ello ha movido que Luber 2005 rechace bajo premisas tan provocativas como poco convincentes que Durero viajara a Venecia en 1494-1495, lo cual apuntara en su da Smith 1979. 22. Salvini 1977. 23. Panofsky 1989, p. 62. 24. Chong 2005, pssim. 25. Janitsch 1883. 26. Wickhoff 1880. 27. Landau / Parshall 1994, p. 69. 28. Simon 1971. 29. Schuster 1978. 30. Evans 1986. 31. Vase Kunsttheoretische Schriften: Lehrbuch der Malerei, en Durero 2000a, p. 867. 32. Koreny 1999. 33. Panofsky 1989, p. 35. 34. Vase as la famosa laudatio de Erasmo de Rotterdam (1528) comentada por Panofsky
1951. Durero retrat a Erasmo durante su viaje a los Pases Bajos en dos ocasiones, la segunda en torno al 1 de septiembre de 1520. Uno de estos retratos (W.805) fue tomado al carboncillo en su casa bruselense de Anderlecht (Vanden Branden 1998, p. 22). 35. Koschatzky 1973, n. 5-6. 36. Cremer 1975, vol. 2, pp. 125-130. 37. Durero 2004. 38. En Verona, pudo observar Durero el proceso de acondicionamiento pirobalstico de la ciudad. Vase Giesecke 1920. 39. Gerstenberg 1910 y, con mucho ms detalle, Passamani 1997. 40. Sobre este mtodo dureriano de distorsin espacial, vase Leber 1988, pp. 21-59. 41. Rusconi 1936. 42. Passamani 1964. 43. Vanse Hoeniger 1936 y Pappenheim 1936. 44. Warnke 1993, pp. 129-130. 45. Price 2003, pp. 231-235.
sibles destinos, como Padua, Mantua y Cremona 33. Por el contrario, se puede conocer la ruta de su viaje a travs de los Alpes gracias a una serie de vistas topogrficas que suponen las primeras muestras conservadas de paisaje puro de la Edad Moderna europea y cuentan entre las obras ms conocidas del genio. No deja de maravillarnos que l, nuevo Apeles alemn y maestro de la lnea34, fuera tambin el introductor del paisaje autnomo tomado del natural, un gnero surgido a partir de las manchas acuareladas. La mayor parte de estas aguadas a color, muchas tituladas de su mano, las hubo de realizar en su recorrido de vuelta, tras conocer la luz y el color de los fondos de paisaje de Cima da Conegliano y Bellini. A la ida, el artista ejecut una Vista de Innsbruck desde la orilla del ro Inn, junto a la Nordkette (w.66), y dos acuarelas del patio del castillo imperial (w.67-68)35. En Innsbruck debi de permanecer algn tiempo ms largo que en el resto de los sitios por los que pas, ya que all vivan algunos familiares de Agnes; de hecho, es posible que sta acompaara al artista hasta aqu, y luego l siguiera solo hasta Italia. Ello explicara que hayan sobrevivido nada menos que tres acuarelas del mismo lugar36. Durante su trayecto de regreso, Durero plasm algunas fortalezas del Tirol y del norte de Italia en las que ya acreditaba su preocupacin por el emplazamiento de esta clase de edificios, como aos despus teorizara en su Tratado de arquitectura y urbanismo militar 37. En mayo de 1495 fue de Verona38 al lago de Garda e ilustr la poderosa fortificacin de Arco (w.94) [fig. 5.7]39, destacada en su imponente acondicionamiento sobre una montaa cubierta por un espeso boscaje. A pesar de su engaosa inmediatez, el panorama de Arco fue realizado a partir de varias vistas parciales. Tan artificiosa manipulacin, debida a la mirada del artista, persegua un punto de vista ms bajo que el real y un nfasis dramtico40 luego retomado en Trento (w.95-96)41 y en el Castillo de Segonzano (w.99)42. A este momento corresponden asimismo las vedute de Dosso di Trento (w.97), con la iglesia de San Apolinar en primer plano y la inacabada montaa italiana (Welsch Pirg) (w.101) de Val di Cembra43.
e l s e g u n d o v i a j e a i ta l i a (1505-1507) Entre el 10 y el 17 de agosto de 1504 Durero y Agnes se alojaron en Wittenberg a expensas del pintor Jacopo deBarbari44, oriundo de Venecia y por entonces al servicio del Elector Federico el Sabio, quien fuera primer patrono de Durero (desde 1494-1495) y devendra protector de Martn Lutero45. Aos ms tarde, el nurembergus recor-
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dara en un borrador de la introduccin a Cuatro libros de las proporciones del cuerpo humano que Barbari le mostr una vez las figuras de un hombre y una mujer dibujadas conforme a canon, pero que no quiso ensearle los principios tericos para esta elaboracin, de modo que el buen Alberto decidi formarse por su cuenta con la lectura de Vitruvio46. El alemn pudo conocer a Barbari durante su primer viaje a Venecia de 1494-1495 o ms probablemente entre 1500-1501, cuando Jacopo residi en Nuremberg por un ao como artista de corte de Maximiliano i. Quiz las conversaciones con l en Wittenberg le hicieron reconsiderar una vuelta a Italia. El 27 de enero de 1505 ardi el Fondaco de Tedeschi, que fue reconstruido a partir del verano del mismo ao por un arquitecto augsburgus llamado Maestro Hieronymus (Girolamo Tedesco). Es factible que Durero viajara a Italia con la esperanza de ocuparse de la redecoracin del lugar, la cual terminara sin embargo recayendo sobre Giorgione (en colaboracin con el joven Tiziano) en 150847. El caso es que a finales del verano emprendi su segundo viaje con destino a Venecia. Pas por Augsburgo, ciudad de los Fugger, y all conocera a Jrg, hermano de Jakob el Rico48. A diferencia del primer viaje a Italia, que le llev a atravesar el paso de Brenner, en este se-
gundo cruzara Carintia49, al sureste de Austria, va Klagenfurt, donde dibujara dos estudios fisiognmicos de campesinas vindonissas, una sonriendo y la otra riendo (w.371 y w.375) [fig. 5.8], tomados del vivo y concebidos como obras acabadas para su particular antologa visual de gentes y tipos populares extranjeros. Pirckheimer prest a Durero el dinero necesario para el viaje lejos quedaba la dote de Agnes, y el maestro gustaba de vivir por encima de las posibilidades adscritas a su clase y le brind un amparo constante a travs de su correspondencia. Han perdurado diez de las cartas que Durero envi desde Venecia a Pirckheimer; a diferencia de la Crnica familiar y del Diario del viaje a los Pases Bajos, que nos han llegado en copias del siglo xvii, todas ellas son autgrafas. Son, adems, las primeras cartas escritas por un artista a un amigo que existen. Huelga insistir en su rareza dentro de la poca, y ms considerando que los documentos coetneos relativos a artistas suelen limitarse a contratos y otros escritos notariales. Las seis primeras misivas se fechan entre el 6 de enero y el 25 de abril de 1506; las cuatro ltimas entre el 18 de agosto y el 13 de octubre50. En ellas, Durero trata de su vida en la ciudad de la laguna, de su bsqueda de nuevas ediciones griegas para Pirckheimer o de la com-
[Fig. 5.6] Alberto Du re ro La muerte de Orfeo, 1494 Pluma y tinta marrn. 289 x 225 mm Hamburgo, Hamburger Kunsthalle [Fig. 5.7] Alberto Du re ro Arco, 1495 Acuarela. 223 x 222 mm Pars, Muse du Louvre [inv. 18.579] [Fig. 5.8] Alberto Du re ro Campesina vindonissa, 1505 Pluma, tinta marrn y aguada marrn. 416 x 281 mm Londres, The British Museum [inv. 1930-3-24-1]
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46. Schlosser 1981, pp. 238-239. 47. Carpeggiani 1994. 48. Hutchison 1990, p. 84. 49. Hiptesis de Ginhart 1962, aceptada por Anzelewsky 1983, pp. 169-178: War Drer in Krnten?. Durero, sin embargo, tambin pudo hacer estos estudios en Venecia, donde exista una colonia eslovena. 50. Lebenszeugnisse: Briefwechsel (Auszge), en Durero 2000a, pp. 1744-1777. 51. Sobre este perdido librillo de escritos de Durero en Venecia, dentro del contexto de sus manuscritos personales y su obra terica, vanse los comentarios de Gonzlez Garca 2004a. 52. Se conservan veintin estudios preparatorios de La fiesta del rosario (W.380-390 y W.392-
401), casi todos dibujados en papeles coloreados en azul a la veneciana; cuatro para el Jess entre los doctores (W.404-407) y tres para la Virgen del lugano (W.403 y W.408-409). Durero volvi a emplear esta tcnica ms adelante en piezas de empeo, como el desaparecido panel central del Retablo Heller, de 1509 (A.108-115), o en el San Jernimo de 1521 (A.162). 53. Aplicamos as a Durero el modelo desarrollado por Goffen 2004, pp. 26-29. 54. Vasari 1568, pp. 297-298. 55. Koerner 2004. 56. Pon 2004, especialmente pp. 70-72. Raimondi, en total, copi directamente a Durero en unas setenta y cuatro de sus estampas. 57. Warburg 2005.
pra de alfombras orientales, plumas de grulla, vidrios, anillos y esmeraldas que tambin le llevaba por encargo; tambin nos perfila sus relaciones con los artistas y patronos locales. Adems de escribirse con Pirckheimer, con Agnes y con su madre, Durero llev un diario personal que no se ha conservado51. Este viaje, en el que abord importantes encargos de pincel, los cuales vienen a suponer junto con los correspondientes dibujos preparatorios52 casi la nica produccin conservada de su estancia, fue ms profesional que turstico. Si en 1494 acudi a Italia para educarse en el clasicismo y en las novedades formales del Renacimiento, en 1505 volvi a Venecia para medirse con los artistas locales y sobrepujarlos en su propio terreno pictrico53. Los venecianos le consideraban un buen artista grfico, pero se burlaban de l tachndolo de mal colorista. Gracias al exitoso saldo de su soggiorno, en el que goz de la admiracin de crticos de la altura del dux Leonardo Loredan y el patriarca Antonio Suriano, Durero pudo silenciar a su rivales, e incluso hubo de guardarse de algunos de ellos, envidiosos hasta el punto de querer envenenarlo. Desde luego, ya no era aquel joven principiante que visitara el Vneto una dcada atrs. Ahora era conocido internacionalmente gracias a sus estampas; slo en Italia tena empleado un agente encargado de su venta. No era para menos, dado el nmero ingente de derivaciones locales extradas de las composiciones ms exticamente germnicas de Durero de finales de la dcada de 1490, muy imitadas en pinturas y cermicas, pero sobre todo en estampas. Segn Giorgio Vasari, Durero viaj a Venecia en 1505 con el objetivo primordial de demandar al grabador Marcantonio Raimondi por piratear su Vida de la Virgen (dw.166-185) y falsificar su firma. Ante la causa, los jueces resolvieron que el bolos poda copiar a Durero, pero no su monograma54. Puede haber algo de verdad en ello, ya que el maestro alemn s que procedi judicialmente ms adelante en un caso parecido contra el uso fraudulento de su marca comercial55, y en lo sucesivo Marcantonio dej de usar el monograma dureriano aunque persever en lo andado con una nueva serie basada por entero en la Pasin pequea (dw.186-222)56. En la carta del 7 de febrero de 1506 afirmaba Durero que aquello que le haba gustado once aos antes ya no le agradaba. Ciertamente, en lugar de reparar en elementos ms o menos anecdticos de la vida local o en las estampas italianas que, dedicadas al pathos, copiara creyendo que encarnaban los modos de la antigedad romana57, en su segundo viaje empez a interesarse seriamente por la tcnica artstica veneciana, tanto en el dibujo como en la pintura. Por suerte, contaba con el aprecio de su buen
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amigo Giovanni Bellini, hermano de Gentile, que iba a visitarle a su estudio y no dudaba en alabarle en pblico delante de los nobles de la ciudad; la estima era recproca por parte de Durero, pues a pesar de su edad provecta, le consideraba el mejor pintor de la Serensima. No obstante, fue Bellini quien manifest su deseo de comprar una obra del nurembergus, y no al contrario. En 1505 Durero pint el Retrato de una joven veneciana (a.92) [fig. 5.9]58, cuyo delicado tratamiento evoca las palabras que, siguiendo el tpico pliniano sobre la rivalidad entre Apeles y Protgenes, Joachim Camerarius cuenta en la pequea biografa de Durero que insert en su traduccin latina de los Cuatro libros sobre las proporciones del cuerpo humano (1532). Segn Camerarius, Bellini pidi a Durero alguno de los pinceles con los que pintaba los cabellos, que en apariencia le permitan trazar varias lneas al tiempo, en perfecto orden y simetra, y se sorprendi enormemente al comprobar que eran pinceles convencionales, muy semejantes a los propios59. Con un espritu similar, realiz al ao siguiente el Retrato de veneciana que lleva las iniciales a. d. bordadas en el vestido (a.95). El tratamiento giorgionesco que se ha querido ver en estos dos retratos se debe ms a su estado uno inacabado y el otro daado que a una voluntad tcnica determinada. Aunque parece indudable que Bellini y Durero intercambiaran conocimientos tcnicos, en este ltimo no se advierten cambios
sustanciales en su manera de abordar la retratstica antes y despus de su estancia en Venecia60. Otra cosa muy diferente sucedi con las pinturas religiosas que acometi all Durero. En 1506 concluy el cuadro que le dara ms prestigio de toda su trayectoria y que sera su primera pala a la veneciana, si bien algo ms apaisada que sus prototipos: La fiesta del rosario (a.93) [fig. 1.17], por l llamada el cuadro alemn, no solamente por su destino (San Bartolommeo, la iglesia alemana de Venecia), sino por su temtica claramente germnica, dedicada a la Virgen del rosario, una devocin inventada en Colonia en la dcada de 1470 y difundida por los dominicos. El carcter teutn de la obra, muy daada en varias ocasiones a lo largo del siglo xvii61, est reforzado por la aparicin de un retrato del emperador Maximiliano en primer plano, arrodillado a la izquierda de la Virgen entronizada y frente al Papa Julio ii. Al fondo, y por primera vez dentro de una composicin religiosa, se autorretrata Durero ante un paisaje urbano similar a Nuremberg o Innsbruck, y sealando un pergamino firmado por l donde dice haber pintado tan imponente tabla (162 x 192 cm) en cinco meses (Exegit quinque mestri spatio); junto a l se halla seguramente el promotor del cuadro y fundador (en 1504) de la confraternidad alemana del Rosario en Venecia, Leonhard Wild, oriundo de Ratisbona. Tambin aparecen afrontados sendos grupos de laicos y reli-
[Fig. 5.9] Alberto Du re ro Retrato de busto de una joven veneciana, 1505 leo sobre tabla. 32,5 x 24,5 cm Viena, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemldegalerie [inv. gg6440] [Fig. 5.10] Alberto Du re ro Virgen del lugano, 1506 leo sobre tabla. 91 x 76 cm Berln, Staatliche Museen, Gemldegalerie [inv. 557f ] [Fig. 6.11] Alberto Du re ro Cabeza de ngel, 1506 Tinta china a pincel y resaltes de albayalde. 270 x 208 mm Viena, Albertina, Graphische Sammlung [inv. 3099]
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58. Glck 1924. 59. Smith 1972, inmediatamente despus amplificado en Smith 1973. Existe otra ancdota a continuacin que enlaza este segundo viaje a Italia con el primero. Camerarius relata que en esta segunda visita de Durero, Mantegna le pidi que fuera a visitarle para robustecer su facilidad y precisin dibujstica con algunos principios cientficos, pero su muerte impidi que ambos llegaran a conocerse personalmente. Vase Parshall 1978. 60. Campbell 1990, pp. 234, 274, n. 15. 61. Kotkov 2002.
62. Vase Humfrey 1991. 63. Bialostocki 1959. 64. Bilbao 1996, p. 11. 65. Plinio: Nat. Hist. XXXV. 108-110 y 123-124. Citado por Plinio 1987, pp. 107-109 y 112-113. Vase Boesten-Stengel 1990. 66. Baxandall 2000, pp. 154-155. 67. Roskill 2000, pp. 90-91. 68. Bosshard 1993. 69. Vase HW [H. Widauer] en Viena 2003, pp. 333-337.
giosos, sin duda retratos tomados de la comunidad germnica de la poca en Venecia, entre los que se destaca el Maestro Hieronymus, a la derecha, cerca del duque Erich von Braunschweig y Jrg Fugger tambin retratado por Giovanni Bellini en 1474; tras el Papa, el patriarca de Venecia, Antonio Suriano, el cardenal Domenico Grimani y el limosnero de San Bartolommeo, Burkhard von Speyer, que reproduce un retrato individual pintado al leo por Durero (a.97)62. Tambin en Venecia ejecut una tabla como nunca haba pintado antes, quiz la Virgen del lugano (a.94) [fig. 5.10], a la que acompaan el Nio y San Juanito, un tema indito al norte de los Alpes a pesar de su frecuencia en la pintura italiana. Ms probable es que esta obra fuera en realidad el Jess entre los doctores (a.98) [cat. 34], una de las pinturas ms innovadoras y extravagantes de Durero, fechada en 1506 e inscrita Opus quinque dierum (obra de cinco das, sin incluir los dibujos preparatorios). Dada la ubicacin italiana del cuadro a comienzos del siglo xvii, algunos estudiosos han conjeturado que pudo ser aquel que Bellini quera encargar a Durero y que pudo finalmente adquirir. A favor de esta teora, amn de razones tcnicas y estilsticas, se encuentran algunos precedentes iconogrficos no conservados y atribuidos precisamente a Giovanni Bellini y a su cuado Andrea Mantegna63, de modo que el genio alemn pudo aqu proyectar un homenaje implcito al destinatario de su obra. A sus innegables cualidades de pictor mimeticos, recogidas por la tradicin crtica asociada a Durero tanto en su poca como en los siglos subsiguientes64, se dira que el artista aspiraba a sumar las propias del pictor celerrimus, un tpico asignado por Plinio el Viejo a Pausias de Sicin quien para mostrar su rapidez, termin en un solo da un cuadro llamado hemersios (pintado en un da) que representa a un nio, a Nicmaco y a su discpulo Filoxeno de Eretria65, al cual remiten las inscripciones debidamente anlogas de La fiesta del rosario y, sobre todo, Jess entre los doctores. La facilit66 era una virtud distintiva de la escuela pictrica veneciana67, y Durero emple en este cuadro una tcnica rpida, aplicando el color alla prima directamente sobre la imprimatura y el dibujo subyacente, sin superposicin de capas68. Prueba aadida de que concibi ambas pinturas como una especie de pareja conceptual es que las realiz ms o menos a la vez, segn demuestran los estudios sobre carta azzurra (o carta turchina) de la Cabeza de ngel (w.385) [fig. 5.11] y de la Cabeza del Nio Jess a los doce aos (w.404), y las Manos del emperador Maximiliano (w.392) y la Mano con un libro (w.406) [cat. 36], que compartan un mismo pliego originariamente, aunque fueron separados en el siglo xix69.
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Este segundo viaje italiano supuso el verdadero inicio de los intereses de Durero por la teora del arte. A finales de su estancia en Venecia expres a Pirckheimer su intencin de dirigirse a Bolonia para aprender los secretos de la perspectiva de alguien que estaba dispuesto a enserselos70. All aprovechara para visitar a Scheurl y estar ocho o diez das; luego regresara a Venecia y emprendera, unas semanas despus, la vuelta a Nuremberg. Creemos, por tanto, que el afn de adquirir este conocimiento cannico, aqu sobrevenido, no debi de contar entre las razones que le impulsaron a organizar su segundo viaje italiano, aunque dicha instruccin encontrara su reflejo en el primer tratado terico publicado por Durero, Underweysung der Messung (1525)71. El artista fue adems a Padua72 y a Ferrara73, e incluso se ha pensado que pudo bajar hasta Roma, una hiptesis a cuyo favor existen razonables pruebas circunstanciales74, pero que tiene en contra el pertinaz silencio al respecto por parte de Pirckheimer, Scheurl, Camerarius o el propio Durero; por otro lado, ninguna obra suya justifica su presencia inexcusable all.
[Fig. 5.12] Alberto Du re ro Retrato del conde Philipp zu Solms, 1518 Carboncillo. 370 x 250 mm Bayona, Muse Bonnat [inv. no.: 1270/161]
los viajes diplomticos por el imperio germnico: bamberg, augsburgo, zrich (1517-1519) Durero volvi a Nuremberg desde Venecia en enero o febrero de 1507. No hay noticias de nuevos viajes hasta diez aos despus, y no es de extraar, pues este periodo coincide con la poca ms prolfica de toda la carrera del autor75. Se sabe por una carta fechada el 11 de octubre de 1517, enviada por el cannigo Lorenz Beheim a Pirckheimer, que Durero visit al obispo de Bamberg, Georg iii Schenk von Limburg en aquel ao, pintando su retrato y el de su bufn Sella, y alojndose en su palacio. El obispo, uno de los principales humanistas y mecenas artsticos de su tiempo, recompens generosamente a Durero y le ofreci sentarse a su mesa en el asiento de honor. Ambas pinturas estn perdidas76. En verano de 1518 se reuni la Dieta Imperial en Augsburgo. Durero acudi a ella como parte de la delegacin nuremburguesa (formada por los patricios Caspar Ntzel y Leonhard Groland y el primer secretario del Consejo municipal de Nuremberg, Lazarus Spengler, vecino y amigo personal de Durero), para registrar las efigies de los all presentes. En aquella Dieta se produjo el primer enfrentamiento de importancia entre la representacin del papado y Lutero. Nuestro artista reconoci la importancia del acontecimiento retratando a cuantos intervinientes pudo hacer que posaran para l en las tres semanas que dur su estancia. Durero dibuj del natural a Jakob Fugger el Rico, y posiblemente sobre
ste hara su retrato a pincel (a.143); al recin nombrado cardenal Alberto de Brandemburgo (w.568), sobre el que hizo en 1519 una estampa a buril (dw.89) de la que tir doscientas copias que regal al cardenal77, al conde Philipp zu Solms (w.570) [fig. 5.12] y al cardenal Matthus Lang von Wellenburg de Salzburgo (w.911), diplomtico y consejero imperial de Maximiliano. En lo sucesivo, el maestro valorara como nunca antes las posibilidades propagandsticas del retrato. Durante los aos siguientes su produccin de retratos se increment exponencialmente, quiz impelido por una nueva necesidad de consignar la apariencia de todas aquellas personas notables que se cruzaban en su camino, sin importar su clase social. Muchas de estas imgenes las conservara para s. El 28 de junio retrat al carboncillo al emperador Maximiliano, en su pequeo gabinete de lo alto del palacio (w.567). Sobre esta imagen se elaboraron cuatro entalladuras planeadas para una difusin mxima por Europa slo la primera, publicada por Johann Kramer, vio la luz en vida del emperador (dw.252) y otras tantas pinturas al leo que Durero replic por el procedimiento de siluetear contornos, una sobre lienzo (a.145), posiblemente portada consigo en su viaje a los Pases Bajos como estandarte procesional para la coronacin de Carlos v78, y la otra so-
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[Fig. 5.13] Alberto Du re ro Asedio de Hohenasperg, 1519 Pluma y tinta marrn. 312 x 436 mm Berln, Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett [inv. kdz 31]
bre tabla (a.146). Dado lo relativamente sumario del dibujo, anlogo a los otros estudios retratsticos que tom entonces, es difcil determinar si su ejecucin obedeci a un encargo imperial o fue un apunte ms de un personaje central, eso s participante en la Dieta.
70. Giosefi 1982. 71. Durero 2000b. 72. Fara 1997. 73. Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, p. 291. 74. Vase Arnolds 1959, pp. 187-190, seguido por Winzinger 1966 y otros autores. 75. Por sealar slo las obras ms celebradas, en esta dcada Durero pint, entre otras tablas, Adn y Eva (A.103-104), El martirio de los diez mil (A.105), el Retablo Heller y el Altar Landauer (A.118); edit las series de la Pasin pequea (dW.186-222), la Pasin grande (dW.154-165) y la Vida de la Virgen (dW.166185); grab las Tres estampas maestras de El caballero, la muerte y el diablo (dW.69), San Jernimo en su celda (dW.70) y Melancola (dW.71); y colabor en las empresas decorativas de Maximiliano, tales como el Arco de triunfo (dW.238), el Gran carro triunfal (dW.239)o el Devocionario del emperador (St.1515/1-45). 76. Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, p. 258. 77. Vase Lebenszeugnisse: Briefwechsel (Auszge), en Durero 2000a, p. 1802. 78. Luber 1991. Durero acudi desde Amberes a la coronacin de Carlos V en compaa de Hans Ebner, Leonhard Groland y Niklas Haller, que formaban la delegacin encargada de escoltar la regala imperial desde su lugar de custodia en el hospital nurembergus del Espritu Santo (HeiligGeist-Spital) hasta la iglesia de Nuestra Seora en Aquisgrn. 79. Vase Reitzenstein 1971. Con este dibujo a pluma tambin se asocia un Paisaje fluvial delineado a punta de plata (W.478). 80. Gonzlez Garca 2004b. 81. Zink 1971. 82. Lebenszeugnisse: Tagebuch der Reise in die Niederlande Anno 1520, en Durero 2000a, pp. 1624-1743. La traduccin de los fragmentos del Diario del viaje a los Pases Bajos que citamos corresponde a E. J. Gonzlez Garca, y est destinada a formar parte de una futura edicin de los manuscritos personales de Durero de prxima publicacin.
Entre el 21 y el 24 de mayo de 1519, durante un viaje que realiz a Zrich en compaa de Pirckheimer y del burgomaestre Martin Tucher como parte de una misin diplomtica, Durero tuvo la oportunidad de contemplar el asedio y bombardeo de la fortaleza de Hohenasperg, dependiente del duque Ulrich von Wrttemberg y defendida por Hans Leonhard von Reischach. El artista dibuj a pluma, con toda precisin histrica, los momentos previos a la rendicin de la plaza a las tropas de la unin suaba, encabezadas por Jrg von Frundsberg (w.626) [fig. 5.13]79. Si en Bamberg o Augsburgo no demostr ninguna inclinacin por conservar memoria de los paisajes vistos (algo de escaso inters por su proximidad para un nurembergus), en Hohenasperg s que lo hizo, en gran medida movido por sus nuevos intereses en la poliorctica contempornea80. En Zrich, en fin, conoci Durero a notables personajes de la ciudad, como Ulrich Zwinglio y el pintor Hans Leu, el Joven81.
e l v i a j e a lo s pa s e s b a j o s (1520-1521) El 12 de julio de 1520, Durero, a punto de cumplir cincuenta aos de edad, dej Nuremberg camino de los
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Pases Bajos. El diario82 que compil durante su ausencia de un ao fuera de Nuremberg, sin precedentes en la literatura artstica, nos lo muestra en su vida privada, carente de artificialidad o pretensiones. En ningn perodo de su vida se nos visualizan ms claramente las actividades cotidianas de Durero. A primera vista, es un libro de cuentas muy preciso en el que daba razn de los gastos hasta el ltimo extremo, desde las costas de transporte, comida, alojamiento o compras al dinero perdido en el juego o gastado en limosnas o en baos y tabernas. Con idntico cuidado registr lo que podan considerarse ganancias, esto es, las cantidades derivadas de la venta de sus propias pinturas, dibujos y estampas. A veces Durero trocaba sus obras; tambin tuvo particular cuidado en anotar los muy variopintos regalos que hizo o le hicieron. Aparte de estos datos puramente financieros, valiosos en cuanto descriptivos de la vida del artista en aquel tiempo y lugar83, el diario contiene desde simples impresiones a narraciones detalladas sobre lo que vio y sobre las personas que encontr, unas relaciones tanto ms vvidas y explcitas cuanto ms conmovido se sinti. Son estos comentarios los que revelan su carcter y su opinin acerca de los mercaderes, artistas, prncipes, lugares, monumentos y obras de arte que tuvo oportunidad de conocer.
El genio alemn trabaj intensamente a lo largo de toda su estancia en los Pases Bajos, a pesar de que gran parte de ese tiempo lo pas viajando, haciendo compras y atendiendo compromisos. En todo caso, se dedic, sobre todo, a producir una inmensa cantidad de retratos. Casi podra decirse que cada persona que trat en el viaje pos para l. En el diario se mencionan unos ciento cuarenta dibujos (de los cuales se conserva un centenar, la dcima parte de toda la produccin dibujstica del autor), en su mayora retratos, y es muy probable que hiciera muchos ms que ni siquiera recordase mencionar. Durero registra los retratos ejecutados haciendo constar casi siempre la tcnica empleada. Se sirve constantemente del trmino conterfeyt, derivado del latn contrafactus (igual que el espaol contrahacer, sobre todo contrahacer del natural, coetneo a la palabra alemana). Era una palabra usada en el Renacimiento por los artistas para significar una particular voluntad de verosimilitud84. Prcticamente todos sus retratos de 1520-1521 son grandes pliegos a carboncillo (de unos 35 x 25 cm), que Durero venda normalmente a su comitente por un florn o regalaba a aquellos que le haban hecho algn favor85. Tambin se han conservado algunos a pincel y otros realzados con albayalde. De las once pinturas al leo realizadas durante el via-
[Fig. 5.15] Alberto Du re ro Retrato de Joost Plankfelt, 1520 Pluma y tinta marrn. 158 x 105 mm Frankfurt am Main, Stdel Museum [inv. 699] [Fig. 5.14] Alberto Du re ro Retrato de hombre, 1521 leo sobre tabla. 50 x 36 cm Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado [inv. p 2180]
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[Fig. 5.16] Alberto Du re ro Retrato de un joven de veinticuatro aos con la abada de San Miguel de Amberes al fondo, 1520 Punta de plata. 133 x 194 mm Chantilly, Muse Cond
je, cinco de ellas eran retratos de busto con manos, segn la moda flamenca an imperante all. Se han conservado al menos tres de ellos: el Retrato de Bernhard von Reesen (a.163), el de Lorenz Sterck (a.164) y el Retrato de hombre del Museo del Prado (a.165) [fig. 5.14], a nuestro modo de ver efigie indudable de Joost Plankfelt86. Est perdido irremediablemente el que pint Durero de Cristin ii de Dinamarca en julio de 152187.
83. Que son los nicos en que reparan Wittkower / Wittkower 2000, pp. 248-249. 84. Vase Parshall 1993. 85. Slo en dos ocasiones pag a modelos que le sirvieron para sus cuadros: el anciano de noventa y tres aos que pos para l en Amberes como modelo para el San Jernimo de Lisboa (W.788-790) y una monja carmelita en Colonia (St.1520/27). Sobre este ltimo retrato, vase Van Gelder 1971. 86. Como se deduce de la comparacin con el sobredicho dibujo a pluma del primer cuaderno (W. 747), cuya inscripcin reza: Das jst mein wirt zw antorf Jobst plankelt 1520 (ste es mi hospedero en Amberes, Joost Plankfelt). Los detalles fisonmicos son simplemente idnticos, desde el cabello a las cejas angulosas, la forma abultada de los prpados, la nariz con caballete, la peculiar forma de los labios, el corte cuadrado del perfil y la barbilla recta, que se completan con la presencia de la gruesa pelliza con cuello de piel y la camisa plisada, cuyo reborde fruncido sobresale de manera anloga en una obra que en otra. Durero entreg el retrato a Plankfelt entre el 12 y el 16 de mayo de 1521 (en el Retrato del Prado se advierten trazas de esta fecha). No creemos plausible la explicacin de que, a tenor de su indumentaria, no pueda tratarse de Plankfelt, bien por su presuntamente mediana condicin social o por la poca primaveral en que fue pintada la tabla (vase P . Silva Maroto en Madrid 2005, pp. 287-289). Es cosa sabida que esta clase de obras se hacan con las mejores galas de las que dispusiera el comitente: as sucede con el retrato de Von Reesen (pintado entre el 16 de marzo y el 5 de abril de 1521) o el de Sterck (inmediato al de Plankfelt, que Durero cita justo a continuacin), donde ambos visten pieles a pesar de la primavera antuerpiense nada benigna, por cierto. Para una recensin de la antedicha muestra del Museo del Prado, vase Gonzlez Garca 2005. 87. Sass 1976. Se conserva, no obstante, un retrato previo del rey Cristin al carboncillo (W.815).
Adems de estas pinturas, acuarelas y dibujos sueltos, tenemos constancia de dos cuadernos usados en el viaje. El primero de ellos, que Durero comenz a rellenar a pluma ms o menos a partir del 22 de julio de 1520, era de formato vertical (16 x 10,5 cm aproximadamente). Se conocen unas diez pginas de este librillo, hoy muy disperso. Los retratos del orfebre Stefan Capello, de Malinas (w.745); de Joost Plankfelt, amigo y anfitrin de Durero en Amberes (w.747) [fig.5.15]; del agente comercial Hans Pfaffrot (w.748) y del capitn imperial y taedor de lad Felix Hungersperg (w.749), entre otros, probablemente pertenecieron a este cuaderno. Ms adelante, cuando el artista abandon temporalmente los Pases Bajos para asistir a la coronacin del emperador en Aquisgrn, hacia el 4 de octubre, llev consigo otro cuaderno de formato oblongo (12,5 x 19 cm de media), en el que dibujara a punta de plata sobre papel estucado. Conocemos quince hojas de este lbum, doce de ellas ilustradas por ambas caras. De estilo firme y metdico, los dibujos comprenden cualquier curiosidad que llamara la atencin del maestro: monumentos, paisajes, trajes, animales, retratos... No todos los retratos de este segundo libro de apuntes fueron tomados del natural, sino que algunos eran ricordi de los dibujos a carboncillo que previamente haba vendido o trocado. Del empleo de ambos cua-
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dernos puede inferirse que los retratos al carboncillo eran para sus comitentes y los que haca a pluma y punta de metal Durero los conservaba para s. Toda esta documentacin configura el momento mejor ilustrado de la vida de Durero y establece uno de los registros de viaje ms ntimos debidos a un artista de cualquier poca. Con todo ello no es difcil revivir los doce meses que permaneci en los Pases Bajos. Las razones del viaje las apunta l mismo al comienzo del diario: stos son los viajes que hizo Alberto Durero para que su mujer visitara los Pases Bajos y para recibir del emperador, rey y seor, grandes honores y un nimo favorable, como puede verse y orse aqu. Este ncipit evidencia varias cosas. De un lado, aclara por qu en este viaje, excepcionalmente, a Durero le acompaaron su mujer que quera hacer turismo y su doncella Susanna. Por otra parte, la expresin como puede verse y orse aqu se nos antoja chocante para un diario que se supone privado. Si no es una adicin del copista, podra inferirse de esto que Durero era tan autoconsciente como para tener en cuenta a sus lectores de la posteridad? Finalmente, advertimos que, como objetivo primordial (aunque no exclusivo) del viaje, Durero esperaba persuadir al joven Carlos v para que le confirmara la pensin anual de cien florines renanos que el 6 de septiembre de 1515 le haba concedido su abuelo, el difunto emperador Maximiliano, y que haba quedado invalidada con la muerte de ste en enero de 1519. A ello no slo le movan razones econmicas, sino incluso perentorias. En una carta dirigida a comienzos de 1520 a Georg Spalatin, consejero de Federico de Sajonia, Durero confesaba estar perdiendo la vista y la habilidad manual, quiz a causa de la edad o como sntomas de una enfermedad incipiente. Para l, cuya reputacin se basaba en la precisin y el detalle exquisito, esto poda resultar trgico, as que se vio en la necesidad de reclamar la pensin imperial para subsistir en su vejez, previsiblemente ardua88. El artista logr ver ratificados sus privilegios, tras grandes trabajos y esfuerzos, en noviembre de 152089. Sin embargo, an demorara su regreso a Nuremberg nueve meses ms. Tan prolongada estancia no encuentra justificacin a menos que pensemos en un ltimo motivo, de orden socioeconmico: Durero concibi tambin su periplo como un viaje de placer y negocios en el que se dedic a vender, regalar o intercambiar sus Libros grandes de entalladuras el Apocalipsis (dw.109-126), la Pasin grande (dw.154-165), la Vida de la Virgen (dw.166-185) o la Pasin pequea (dw.186222) y sus estampas calcogrficas, que portaba en un nmero considerable. Tambin llevaba otras de su
amigo y antiguo oficial Hans Baldung Grien y de su discpulo Hans Schufelein. Que Durero llevara consigo tantos grabados indica que confiaba en encontrar mercado para ellos en los Pases Bajos. Deba de saber desde tiempo atrs que su produccin era demandada all, donde circulaba, gracias a la facilidad de su transporte, por los obradores para ser empleada como repertorio de nuevas formas y motivos, figuras, poses y expresiones fisiognmicas, temas y composiciones. El nombre de Alberto Durero era famoso en los Pases Bajos y su arte bien conocido. Eso explica la constante aparicin en el diario de seales de estima y admiracin recibidas de sus colegas a lo largo de su estancia, a diferencia del trato que le dispensaron casi todos los pintores de Venecia aos antes. A travs de sus palabras le vemos sinceramente impresionado por las obsequiosas recepciones y banquetes principescos que celebraban en su honor los gremios de artistas, agradeciendo con conmovedora ingenuidad no carente de orgullo y satisfaccin tantas muestras de aprecio derramadas sobre su persona en muchas de las ciudades por l visitadas. El diario contiene igualmente los primeros testimonios de crtica de arte debidos a un maestro no italiano. Ya en el epistolario que mantuvo con Jakob Heller (1507-1509), Durero haba reclamado el juicio de los inteligentes y de otros pintores para que se pronunciaran sobre su trabajo90. A pesar de los indudables beneficios que le supuso al final la contemplacin de todas las obras artsticas que admir, la expedicin a los Pases Bajos no fue un viaje de estudios, al menos no de la misma manera que lo fueron los viajes formativos de 1490-1495. De la lectura del diario se concluye que lo que admiraba Durero de los artistas de los Pases Bajos era su tcnica ms que sus virtudes para la composicin o la invencin, de las cules l mismo se consideraba eptome. Un elemento aadido de cualificacin lo integran los retratos que hizo de aquellos artistas que respetaba personalmente. A otros no tan celebrados (y en ocasiones a los mismos, como Joachim Patinir o Lucas van Leyden) regalara, bajo probable peticin, algunas de sus estampas para que les sirvieran de repertorio. Durero residi en Amberes por toda la duracin del viaje. Slo se ausento en breves ocasiones a ciudades cercanas como Malinas, Bruselas, Brujas, Gante y Aquisgrn, donde asisti a la coronacin de Carlos v. A pesar de ello, no lleg a conocer personalmente a los dos artistas ms famosos de la escuela de Amberes de la poca: Quentin Metsys y Jan Gossaert. En agosto de 1520, a los pocos das de llegar a Amberes, el artista sealaba, lacnicamente, que estuvo en casa del Maestro
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Quintines. Aparentemente no lleg a conocer a Metsys, ya que de otro modo habra dedicado ms espacio a registrar el encuentro con alguien que, en 1520, estaba en la cima de su carrera y cuya reputacin eclipsaba la del resto de los artistas de Amberes. Despus no volvera a mencionarse su nombre en el diario. Las razones para esto pueden ser varias, desde que Metsys estuviera ausente cuando Durero acudi a su casa, o que se encontrara enfermo aunque en este caso Durero seguramente habra intentado una segunda visita; acaso Metsys evit el encuentro por pura timidez o, ms probablemente, por celos u orgullo profesional. Este comportamiento encaja con algunas descripciones de su carcter que han llegado hasta nosotros91. Otro tanto le sucedi a Durero con Jan Gossaert, quien era, detrs de Metsys, el pintor flamenco ms estimado de su tiempo, adems de grabador en cobre y al aguafuerte. El 9 de diciembre de 1520 el alemn lleg a ver una de sus obras ms importantes, el trptico del Descendimiento que adornaba el altar mayor de la abada premostratense de Middelburg, capital de Zelanda. Encargado por el abad Maximiliano de Borgoa hijo del bastardo Felipe de Borgoa y patrono de Gossaert y pintado entre 1518-1520, ardi en un in88. Vase Lebenszeugnisse: Briefwechsel (Auszge), en Durero 2000a, p. 1803. 89. Esta cantidad tena que detraerse de la contribucin pagada por la ciudad de Nuremberg al tesoro imperial. No se conserva el original de esta confirmacin, fechada en Colonia el 4 de noviembre de 1520 y contrafirmada por Alberto de Brandemburgo y el vicecanciller Niklas Ziegler, aunque s una copia antigua de la misma en los archivos municipales de Nuremberg (Rupprich 19561969, vol. 1, pp. 90-91). 90. Lebenszeugnisse: Briefwechsel (Auszge), en Durero 2000a, p. 1788. Esto lo repetira en los manuscritos preparatorios de su Manual de la pintura (Kunsttheoretische Schriften: Lehrbuch der Malerei, en Durero 2000a, p. 883). 91. Van Mander 2000, pp. 154-156. Metsys habitaba en la Rodestraat, en una casa llamada De Simme (El mono) que compr en 1519. Hoy desaparecida, en 1520 era uno de los hitos monumentales de la ciudad, y acaso Durero se dirigi all por esa sola razn. 92. Vase Van Mander 2000, pp. 139-140. 93. Se conserva un San Cristbal a tinta y realce en blanco sobre papel preparado en gris que pudo formar parte de este conjunto de dibujos (W.801), tambin asociables a otra hoja de nueve estudios dedicados a dicha iconografa (W.800). El tema de San Cristbal portando al Nio Jess con un fondo de paisaje es conocido en la pintura de Patinir; el ejemplar ms seero puede contemplarse en El Escorial. 94. Aunque hoy no se conserva, el retrato de Patinir seguramente se corresponde con el buril de la coleccin de Dominicus Lampsonius Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae inferioris effigies (1572), donde el artista de Amberes aparece con algo ms de cincuenta aos de edad. Gracias a la inscripcin de la estampa escrita por Lampsonius y copiada por Van Mander y al diario de Durero, sabemos que ste ejecut el retrato a punta de metal, sobre un improbable soporte de pizarra, o quiz sobre tabla. Vase Van Mander 2000, p. 163. 95. La archiduquesa le volvi a recibir al final de su estancia en los Pases Bajos en su palacio de Malinas, donde le mostr su coleccin de obras de arte y su biblioteca. Sobre las colecciones artsticas y el mecenazgo de Margarita de Austria, es insustituible Eichberger 2000. Durero qued particularmente impresionado por cuarenta tablillas pintadas al leo de una belleza y pureza que no haba visto nunca antes, las cuales constituan el llamado Polptico de Isabel la Catlica, dedicado a la vida de Cristo y pintado por Juan de Flandes y Michel Sittow. Originariamente consista en cuarenta y siete tablas hoy se conservan veintisiete, treinta y dos de ellas (que son las que en realidad vio Durero) adquiridas a la muerte de su primera propietaria por Felipe el Hermoso y slo despus entregadas al tesorero de su hermana Margarita, Diego Flores, a quien tambin conoci el artista nuremburgus. Acerca de este trascendental y reciente hallazgo, vase Zalama 2006.
cendio causado por los iconoclastas en 1568. Al parecer tena dos alas tan gigantescas que precisaban de caballetes para mantenerse abiertas. Karel van Mander anot en su famoso Libro de la pintura (1604) que cuando el ilustre Alberto Durero vino de Amberes a contemplar esta obra, qued profundamente impresionado92. Sin embargo, no consta lo mismo, ni mucho menos, en el diario de Durero, en el cual dej escrito que le pareca una pintura no tan buena en el modelado de las cabezas como en el colorido, una opinin que supone la nica censura anotada por l respecto a sus colegas neerlandeses. Con excepcin de estos casos tan sealados, puede decirse que Durero entr en contacto con todos los artistas neerlandeses relevantes hacia 1520, ya fueran pintores, escultores, vidrieros, iluminadores u orfebres. El primero que conoci, a los pocos das de llegar a Amberes, fue Patinir. Amigo y colaborador de Metsys, Patinir es el artista local vivo que ms veces aparece citado en el diario. Parece que Durero y l se llevaron bien, y a menudo comieron juntos e intercambiaron ideas. En el diario se llama al Maestro Joachim el buen paisajista. El pintor de Dinant, en efecto, estaba especializado en la representacin de paisajes panormicos que hibridaban elementos reales y fantsticos. Menos dotado para delinear la figura humana, Patinir recibi de Durero ayuda en forma de dibujos, como cuatro estudios de San Cristbal sobre papel entintado en gris93. Tambin Alberto dibuj su retrato94. Las primeras ciudades que visit el nurembergus despus de establecerse en Amberes fueron Malinas y Bruselas, a finales de agosto de 1520. Su intencin era asegurarse buenos consejos y contactos favorables que apoyaran su solicitud de renovacin de la pensin concedida por Maximiliano I ante el nuevo emperador. Durero procur cultivar la amistad de dos artistas de la corte de Margarita de Austria, ta de Carlos v: el escultor alemn Konrad Meit y el pintor Bernard van Orley, al que retratara al carboncillo (w.810). Trat con algunos oficiales de la corte de Margarita y recibi garantas de la propia regente de que hablara favorablemente de su caso ante su sobrino95. No todo seran intrigas cortesanas durante su estancia bruselense. Aprovech para visitar los jardines del parque de Warande, situado detrs del palacio de los duques de Brabante, comentando que nunca he visto algo tan divertido y agradable, algo ms parecido a un paraso. Tom apuntes de la casa de fieras del palacio de Bruselas (w.822 y st.1521/40) [fig. 5.17], en un dibujo general y en otro delicadamente acuarelado con fragmentos de paisaje, leones, un rebeco, un lince y un
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babuino, del cual anot su peso y tamao. Qu triviales deban parecerle los crustceos que pint en su primer viaje a Venecia! Poco ms de tres meses despus, al saber que la Fortuna haba hecho varar una ballena en las costas de Zelanda, apenas pudo contenerse y parti de Amberes hacia Ziericksee en medio del invierno, viajando a lomos de caballo hasta Bergen-op-Zoom y de all en barco a Goes y Arnemuiden. Tras pasar por este ltimo lugar, describira de un modo un tanto campanudo los peligros que pas para tratar de contemplarla (sin xito), cuando un barco choc contra la lnea de flotacin de la nave en la que viajaban y arrastr a sta hacia mar abierto; una visita en la que contrajo unas cuartanas que le acabaran por costar la vida en 1528. Durante este viaje a Zelanda dibuj una impresionante cabeza de morsa (w.823) [fig. 5.18] que despus reaprovechara como cabeza del dragn atributivo de la Santa Margarita de una Sacra Conversazione de 1522 (w.855). Si en el segundo viaje a Venecia Durero se dedic a comprar cosas para la Wunderkammer de Pirckheimer, aqu las adquiri sobre todo para s mismo. A la luz del diario, su carcter aparece de nuevo lleno de contrastes: por una parte, hallamos a un hombre ahorrativo al mximo, y por otra a alguien que se prodiga gastando dinero en toda clase de objetos intiles y a veces enigmticos, como un coleccionista apasionado. La lista de regalos y compras, muchas de ellas de alto precio, evoca la ms extraa recopilacin imaginable: cuernos de bfalo y de buey, pezuas de alce, corales blancos y rojos, nueces de coco, plumas exticas, caas de bamb, tortugas, tres papagayos, un mono, pequeos pescados secos, conchas marinas, una piedra imn, simientes italianas, porcelanas chinas, gemas... Todo lo raro y curioso tiene para l un atractivo singular96.
El espritu de Durero se conmova al enfrentarse a lo desconocido, ya fuera venido de lugares remotos o de algn tiempo pasado. El diario ofrece una prueba inmejorable de ello: en 1519, tras su paso por Sevilla y Valladolid, Carlos v haba enviado a Bruselas un conjunto de ciento cincuenta espectaculares objetos mexicas trados del Nuevo Mundo. El maestro alemn los contempl en el palacio de Coudenberg entre el 27 de agosto y el 2 de septiembre de 1520, donde llenaban dos salas97. Fue el primer artista europeo que manifest su aprecio por la cultura precolombina y el nico, de entre los que vieron aquella impresionante exposicin98, que dej constancia de su franca admiracin por los aztecas y sus riquezas99:
Yo no he visto en todos los das de mi vida nada que haya regocijado tanto mi corazn como estas cosas, pues vi all soberbias obras de arte y me maravill el sutil ingenia de los hombres de aquellas tierras lejanas. En verdad no soy capaz de expresar todo lo que all pens.
[Fig. 5.17] Alberto Du re ro Estudios de animales y paisajes, 1521 Pluma, tinta china y aguada azul, gris y rosa. 264 x 397 mm Williamstown, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute [inv. 1955.1848] [Fig. 5.18] Alberto Du re ro Cabeza de morsa, 1521 Pluma, tinta china, tinta marrn y acuarela. 211 x 312 mm Londres, The British Museum [inv. 5261/167]
Gracias a las exploraciones de la Indias Orientales y Occidentales, Amberes haba sustituido en 1520 a Venecia como centro mercantil de Europa. El comercio transocenico estaba en manos de la colonia portuguesa, asentada en Amberes al menos desde 1498; a ellos siguieron los italianos, espaoles, ingleses y alemanes100. Dicha poblacin, rica y productiva, quiz no fuera numricamente relevante, pero a pesar de suponer unos pocos centenares, estos extranjeros fueron suficientes para dar a Amberes un aire cosmopolita y un nuevo espritu, distinto del tardomedieval. Los compaeros constantes y amigos de cada da del pintor fueron, sobre todo, los representantes comerciales del rey de Por-
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[Fig. 5.19] Alberto Du re ro San Jernimo, 1521 leo sobre tabla. 59,5 x 48,5 cm Lisboa, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga [inv. 828]
96. Eichberger 2005. 97. Anders 2001, p. 3, y, sobre todo, Feest 1990, pp. 33-36. 98. Torre Villar 1956-1957. 99. Dacos 1969. Durero estaba familiarizado, a travs de su amistad con Pirckheimer, con el traductor al alemn de las cartas de Hernn Corts a Carlos V, Pietro Savorgnano, y tuvo muy presente la vista de Tenochtitlan
incluida como acompaamiento de dicha traduccin una entalladura a fibra que no es sino la primera representacin de una ciudad americana jams publicada en Europa para sus propias ideas sobre urbanismo. Vase Gonzlez Garca 2000. 100. Vase Goris 1925, pssim. 101. Themudo Barata de Azevedo 1990. 102. Leuker 2001, pp. 51-52.
tugal, que eran conocidos como factores y se contaban entre los ms importantes miembros de la comunidad de extranjeros de Amberes. Tan rpido y estrecho contacto con los portugueses se explica por una amistad previa. Entre septiembre de 1519 y enero de 1520 Rodrigo Fernandes de Almada haba viajado a Alemania, pasando una temporada en Nuremberg, para concertar, por orden de su rey, el intercambio a gran escala de especias de Indias a cambio de barras de cobre y armamento. Es probable que en esos das trabara contacto con Durero, quiz a travs de Pirckheimer101. El factor real gozaba de autorizacin expresa para adquirir bienes por cualquier cantidad en nombre de la corona portuguesa. A la llegada de Durero, esta agencia estaba en manos de Joo Brando, asistido por el secretario Rodrigo (Rui) Fernandes de Almada, hombre de gran talento y formacin humanstica. Durero hizo su retrato (w.813) y el de Katherina, su sirvienta morisca (w.818). Deseoso de regalar algo especial a su mejor amigo en Amberes, con quien comparta el culto que los intelectuales europeos rendan al patrn seglar de los eruditos, el artista pint al leo un San Jernimo con mucho esfuerzo (a.162) [fig. 5.19]. Con ello invent el prototipo de San Jernimo de medio cuerpo, meditando ante una calavera con libros repartidos sobre la mesa. Ninguna otra tabla de Durero fue copiada, imitada y recreada con tanta frecuencia en el Renacimiento flamenco, no slo por su calidad singular, sino sobre todo por su novedad iconogrfica102. El viaje de Durero a los Pases Bajos constituye la mxima expresin de sus ansias de rivalidad artstica y de su afn de superacin de los maestros antiguos y modernos. El recorrido fluvial que hizo a comienzos de abril de 1521 a Brujas y a Gante, aunque breve, reviste particular inters para conocer sus juicios acerca de la pintura flamenca del siglo xv. El diario reserva el calificativo de grandes maestros para Rogier van der Weyden y Hugo van der Goes; en un lugar inmediato se coloca Johannes (i. e. Jan van Eyck). Los retablos de los grandes maestros esos que cierta historiografa caduca an denomina primitivos flamencos o considera medievales cautivaron la imaginacin de Durero. Su padre le ense a venerar estas obras, que sin duda siempre anhel conocer en sus propias fuentes. De ellas debi de apreciar su grave esplendor, aunque acaso considerase que tales resultados se haban logrado por mtodos ya superados por l mucho tiempo atrs. Y sin embargo, las palabras ms admiradas que Durero dedic a una pintura vista durante su viaje, las escribi tras contemplar el Cordero Mstico de Van Eyck. El 10 de abril visit el famoso retablo (terminado c. 1430-1432) en la capilla de Vyd de la anti-
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gua iglesia de San Juan de Gante, hoy catedral de San Bavn. De este polptico dijo con entusiasmo:
Es una pintura preciossima y muy pensada, y especialmente Eva, Mara y Dios Padre son estupendos103.
Cualquier crtico de nuestro tiempo firmara estas palabras. Durero tena consciencia de haber superado a los maestros de su juventud (Wolgemut, Schongauer...) en el arte de la lnea; a los amigos de su madurez en la teora y en la prctica pictrica (Bellini, Barbari...); slo le restaba enfrentarse a sus contemporneos estrictos de Italia y Flandes, a sus rivales en el campo en el que se senta insuperable: la invencin grfica. A pesar de sus diferencias estilsticas y de concepcin como dibujantes104, Rafael y Durero tenan muy alta consideracin el uno del otro, y de ello da cuenta Vasari ya en la primera edicin de sus Vite. Se ha llegado a suponer un encuentro entre ambos artistas en Venecia en 1505, donde Rafael habra acudido para completar su formacin105, pero si tal hecho hubiera tenido lugar, seguramente Vasari se habra hecho eco de ello. Segn el de Arezzo, Durero envi a Rafael un autorretrato suyo pintado con acuarelas de colores sobre una tela de lino. Esta suerte de Vernica profana, hoy perdida, fue heredada por Giulio Romano en Mantua y all la vio Sandrart a finales del siglo xvii106. Rafael encontr maravillosa esta muestra del arte de Durero, y a cambio le envi muchos dibujos suyos en papel, muy estimados por Alberto107. De estos intercambios, acaecidos entre 1513 y 1515, slo hay registro de una sanguina con un desnudo masculino en dos poses diferentes relacionada con la Batalla de Ostia de la Stanza dellIncendio en el Vaticano o con el cartn del tapiz de la Ceguera de Elimas108, que a su vez era un homenaje a Durero, ya que imitaba una entalladura suya de 1510 con el Martirio de San Juan Bautista (dw.152)109. No obstante, Rafael se sirvi de grabados de Durero en otras ocasiones110; de hecho, tena sus estampas clavadas por las paredes de su obrador, sin que ello le avergonzara y sin dejar de admirarlas grandemente111. Vasari nos recuerda la rivalidad existente entre ambos autores:
Al ver Rafael las estampas de Alberto Durero, y queriendo tambin l mostrar de lo que era capaz en tal arte, hizo estudiar mucho a Marco Antonio Bolognese (Marcantonio Raimondi) esta tcnica.
Tras la muerte de Rafael (el 6 de abril de 1520, curiosamente el mismo da y mes en que morira Durero ocho aos ms tarde), el alemn se hizo con ms memorabilia rafaelesca. Tommaso Vincidor, un discpulo del Urbinate que estaba en Flandes por encargo del Papa Len x para supervisar la recepcin de los tapices de los Hechos de los Apstoles, concebidos para la Capilla Sixtina112, pidi verle en septiembre y le regal un anillo antiguo de oro con un camafeo engastado. Como contrapartida, Durero le obsequi con algunas de sus mejores estampas. A comienzos de octubre de 1520 le dio un juego completo de sus grabados, destinados a otro pintor de Roma, que a cambio enviara al maestro alemn las cosas de Rafael. Vincidor, por ltimo, le hizo un retrato al leo tambin perdido para llevrselo a Roma, cuyo aspecto se conoce por una copia de Willem van Haecht. El 10 de junio de 1521, al final de su sexta y ltima estancia en Amberes, Durero entr en contacto con el artista flamenco de su tiempo a quien ms admiraba y por el cual estaba ms interesado: Lucas van Leyden. Pintor y grabador, por entonces disfrutaba de un gran xito promovido por la popularidad de sus estampas. Dos das ms tarde Durero dibuj su retrato a punta de metal (w.816) [fig. 5.20], y algo despus cambi ocho florines en impresiones propias por todas las estampas de Van Leyden, de lo cual puede deducirse una buena relacin entre ambos, que les haca disfrutar con agrado de las estampas del otro113. Van Mander nos ofrece una narracin algo ms pintoresca pero no necesariamente menos plausible en su biografa de Durero:
l visit nuestros Pases Bajos y, en aquella ocasin, pudo frecuentar a distintos artistas y admirar sus ingeniosas creaciones, con sumo deleite y placer. Se senta fuertemente atrado por las obras de Lucas van Leyden, y cuando le vio qued tan maravillado y estupefacto que se qued sin habla y sin aliento. Despus de haberle admirado un largo rato, Durero le tom afectuosamente del brazo, sorprendido por el contraste entre su pequea estatura y lo meritorio y honorable de su gran nombre. Lucas, por su parte, qued contento y emocionado por haber conocido a un hombre tan digno, cuyas estampas haba contemplado desde antiguo y cuya fama le haba alcanzado. Estas dos luces y ornamentos del arte el uno alemn, el otro de los Pases Bajos se obsequiaron con sus retratos respectivos y saborearon clidamente su mutua compaa114.
Ya hemos mencionado ms arriba en qu consistieron estos estudios de Raimondi sobre la tcnica dureriana.
El relato termina en la Vida de Van Leyden, aunque en un tono algo ms tentativo:
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[Fig. 5.20] Alberto Du re ro Retrato de Lucas van Leyden, 1521 Punta seca. 275 x 180 mm Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts [inv. pl.918]
Leyden, sino Amberes, como queda dicho. Es innegable que a Lucas le inspiraba el espritu de la rivalidad. En particular, debi de ser el ejemplo de Durero el que le anim a ejecutar sus grandes dibujos de cabezas retratsticas, casi todos realizados durante su breve estancia en Amberes, que le ocuparan hasta el 28 de junio. Igualmente, su serie de buriles sobre la Pasin, del mismo ao de 1521, o sus grabados tardos de desnudos, dependen directamente de composiciones durerianas116. El diario del viaje de Alberto Durero a los Pases Bajos concluye con su regreso a Nuremberg, pero las anotaciones cesan a partir de la llegada a Colonia, el 15 de julio de 1521, unas tres semanas antes de retornar a su ciudad natal. El viaje dur en total poco ms de un ao, ms o menos el mismo tiempo que dedic a sus dos visitas a Italia. Las consecuencias de su estancia se haran patentes en sus ltimos aos, en los que prcticamente slo se dedic a la pintura de retratos, a las estampas y a la teora del arte. Segn la penltima carta conservada de entre las que escribi a Pirckheimer desde Venecia, del 23 de septiembre de 1506, Durero abandon la Serensima dejando atrs encargos que rechaz y que le hubieran reportado ms de dos mil ducados. En la ltima y dcima epstola, de hacia el 13 de octubre, se encuentra la popular frase de:
Algunos creen que entre l y Alberto Durero haba una disputa continua, y que si Alberto realizaba alguna cosa, Lucas grababa inmediatamente la misma historia o escena, en una competicin tcita de emulacin recproca; hasta que un da Alberto Durero vino a los Pases Bajos y ejecut, en Leyden, el retrato del natural de Lucas, y ste, sobre una tablilla, pint el de su colega, y permanecieron en buenas relaciones el uno con el otro115. Oh, cmo echar de menos el sol cuando me hiele. Aqu soy un seor; en mi tierra, un parsito.
La narracin de Van Mander es fidedigna salvo en el lugar en el que se encontraron los dos artistas, que no fue
103. Schmidt 2005, especialmente p. 49. 104. Oberhuber 1985. 105. Mulazzani 1986. 106. Sandrart 1683, pp. 124 y 211. 107. Vasari 2002, p. 534. 108. Kaplan 1974. 109. Durero recibi el dibujo en 1515, y as lo anot de su mano. Vase Nesselrath 1993. 110. Quednau 1983. 111. Roskill 2000, pp. 120-121. 112. Nueva York 2002, p. 230. 113. Este dibujo fue utilizado por Lampsonius para su coleccin. De Lucas van Leyden,
dice Durero en su diario: El Maestro Lucas, grabador de cobre, me ha invitado. Es un hombrecillo pequeo nacido en Leiden, en Holanda; estaba en Amberes. En efecto, el alemn lo represent con un aspecto frgil y enteco, aquejado a sus veintisiete aos de una tuberculosis que le conducira a la muerte en 1533. 114. Vase Van Mander 2000, pp. 139-140. 115. Ibid., pp. 147-148. Vase asimismo Vos 1978. 116. Vase Silver / Smith 1978. 117. Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, pp. 109-114. 118. Mende 1991a, especialmente pp. 7-50. 119. Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, p. 77. 120. Mende 1977.
No creemos acertado sobrevalorar el sentido de esta afirmacin. Cmo explicar si no que Durero decidiera permanecer hasta el final de sus das en Nuremberg, a pesar de las ofertas que recibi en Venecia (doscientos ducados al ao) y que volveran a avanzarle en Amberes (trescientos florines de oro anuales)? Ambos lugares le ofrecan exencin de impuestos, alojamiento gratuito y pago aparte de las obras que ejecutara, y Durero rechaz todo a cambio de mantenerse en su ciudad natal117. Si actu as no fue (o no slo fue) por apego a sus races, sino por su elevado estatus social dentro de la comunidad local. Era miembro del Grossen Rat (Gran Consejo) de Nuremberg desde 1509, ao en que adquiri la esplndida Drerhaus118; en 1512 el emperador Maximiliano haba solicitado para l al Consejo que fuera liberado de toda clase de impuestos y tasas119; su nombre, en suma, era respetado no slo all sino en toda Alemania. Ningn otro pintor que conociera estuvo ms colmado de favores municipales que l mismo en los ltimos aos de su vida120. Slo su ansia de viajar, su Wanderlust, combinada con una formidable curiosidad artstica y antropolgica, logr alejarle ocasionalmente de las orillas del Pegnitz.
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Apelles Vagabundus Albrecht Drers travels: from apprenticeship to artistic rivalry Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca
Albrecht Drer is the first artist in history to have left a coherent series of selfportraits and an important body of autobiographical writings. Among the latter, references to his travels constitute a unique phenomenon within European Renaissance art. No artist prior to Drer or contemporary with him approached the idea of travelling in the same way: not only did Drer travel much more widely than any other artist but he also approached the subject with completely different and modern aims, constantly drawing (and sometimes painting in oil) as a means of recording the impressions and ideas that the stimulus of other places produced in him1. Drers wanderlust was primarily the consequence of the character of his native city. In the artists day Nuremberg literally lay at the crossroads of all international trade routes. Everything that arrived in Venice from exotic foreign parts en route to northern Europe passed through Nuremberg. Such a constant flow of commercial traffic undoubtedly broadened the minds and gazes of the citys inhabitants who were as passionately cosmopolitan as the humanists and scientists who visited the city from near and far, attracted to its lively cultural life and its antiquity, size and riches2. The circle of intellectuals around Drer, led by his friend Willibald Pirckheimer, must also have contributed to this spirit, and would result in friendships that Drer maintained by correspondence during his travels3.
t h e wa n d e r j a h re : co l m a r, b a s e l , s t r a s b o u rg (1490-1494) Drers Family Chronicle is a genealogy of his ancestors written by the artist in 1524 and featuring autobiographical elements. It marks a high point among artists Lives and is one of the sources that records the first trip that he undertook, a month before his nineteenth birthday: When I finished my apprenticeship, my father sent me abroad and I was away four years until he called for me again. I left in 1490 after Easter (Saturday 11 April) and returned in 1494 after Pentecost (Sunday 18 May)4. Drers study trip (Wanderfahrt or Wanderjahre) thus lasted for four years, considerably longer than the normal obligatory study trip for all artists, which probably lasted one or two years. Drer also travelled much further. This late medieval practice, still in use in some professions in Germany, allowed young apprentices to increase their professional experience far from home, while also making contacts that might prove useful for their future professional endeavours. We have no surviving diary or correspondence from this period (if any existed) but we can reconstruct part of Drers trip with the help of works of art dating from that time and also by analysing various other accounts, particularly those of the Nuremberg lawyer Christoph Scheurl, one of the artists humanist friends5. As an apprentice in Nuremberg with his teacher Michael Wolgemut, Drer undoubtedly acquired the basic skills of painting on panel and designing woodcuts. From his father he learned to draw and handle a burin although not to the level he aspired to and which he felt only Martin Schongauer could offer him. Schongauers graphic work was admired and imitated throughout Europe, including Italy, where even the youthful Michelangelo copied a print by the German artist6. Drer must have set off
with letters of recommendation from his father and godfather Anton Koberger, the leading publisher in Germany of the day. It is likely that he travelled as part of one of Kobergers commercial convoys as far as Frankfurt. Along the way he would have encountered the work of the so-called Master of the Housebook, whose style he assimilated, as we can see in two drawings of The Holy Family (W.25 and W.30)7, and another of A Young Couple (W.56), executed in pen during his trip [fig. 1]. Drer arrived at the Alsatian city of Colmar, where Schongauer had lived, in early 1492. Sadly, the young artist was not aware that his intended mentor had died one year previously, on 2 February 1491, probably from the plague. Nonetheless, in Colmar he was partly able to carry out his intentions as he was welcomed by the Schongauer brothers (the goldsmiths Caspar and Paul and the painter Ludwig), who allowed him to study the work of the deceased master, and Drer would use Schongauer as a source of inspiration throughout his career8. Ludwig Schongauer in particular must have offered Drer some general notions of the skills needed by an aspiring artist in order to become a recognised painter-printmaker9. Basing ourselves on travellers guides of the period, such as that of Erhard Etzlaub (ca.1500)10, Drer would have passed through Freiburg, Breisach and Konstanz on route to Basel, his next destination. There he was received in the Haus zum Tanz by another Schongauer brother, Georg, who was also a wellknown goldsmith. In Basel, Drer put his name to a woodblock to be used for the front cover of the Epistles of Saint Jerome published by Nikolaus Kessler on 8 August 1492. This is a rough piece of work produced by an anonymous carver but based on a drawing by Drer. It shows the saint in his study extracting the thorn from the lions paw (dW.216.1)11. During his time in Basel, Drer created more than 100 drawings as preparatory studies for woodcuts for an edition of Terences Comedies [fig. 2], which were only partly executed as another publisher rushed out an edition of this title in 1493 (St.1492/4-128). Drer also worked on the design of woodcuts for other publications for the publisher Johann Bergmann von Olpe. Notable among these is Der Ritter vom Turn by Marquart von Steyn, based on the original French text by Geoffrey de La Tour-Landry (dW.263.1-45), and Das Narrenschyff by Sebastian Brant (dW.266.1-78)12. In 1493 the artist ended his study trip by taking a boat along the Rhine to Maguncia and Strasbourg. In the latter city Drer probably worked in the studio of Wolfgang Beurer (or Peurer)13, also painting his portrait and that of his wife. Drer produced various self-portraits during the course of his Wanderjahre; the celebrated images in which the artists intensely curious gaze shares space with his hand. These date from 1491 and 1493 (W.26 and W.27)14. Drers first known Self-portrait in oil (A.10) [fig. 3]15 was painted in Strasbourg in 1493, as we know from the use of local dialect in the accompanying inscription. This is likely to be a betrothal portrait, as indicated by the sea thistle that Drer is holding (a symbol of masculinity and thought to have aphrodisiac properties), and from the fact that it was originally on parchment (now transferred to canvas), which would allow it to be taken back to Nuremberg16. Drers whereabouts in the year and a half from the time of his departure from Nuremberg until he arrived in Colmar is unknown. It has been suggested that he could have travelled around the Low Countries17, which seems no more than a hypothesis to the present author. While Drers father trained there18, Drer preferred to look to Italy for his artistic growth and ideas, which were stylistically different and contrasted notably with those circulating in the north of Europe. Only at the end of his life would he go to the Netherlands and for reasons quite different to those that motivated his early trips.
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t h e f i r s t i ta l i a n t r i p (1494-1495) On 18 May 1494 Drer responded to the summons of his father, who had spent the previous months reaching an agreement over the artists marriage. He left Strasbourg for Nuremberg by the most direct route via Swabia. On 7 July the matrimonial agreement was completed, in which Hans Frey entrusted the artist with his daughter Agnes and a dowry of 200 Florins. Not only was it normal to approach marriage in this period as simply another type of business arrangement which in Drers case implied clear social ascent via his in-laws but the City Council of Nuremberg would not have allowed him to open an independent workshop had he not been married. This would not have seemed a bad exchange for exemption from regulations governing artisans guilds, banned in Nuremberg since the 14th century. While the artist was thus deprived of the protectionist measures accorded by the guilds, this situation offered him great independence when selecting the type of business practices that seemed to him appropriate, allowing him to open up new markets and aspire to an elevated socio-economic status19. At the start of the autumn of that year and possibly partly financed by his wifes dowry, Drer embarked on a study trip to Italy, an unprecedented step for a German artist. The only known cases of northern artists travelling to Italy (rather than living there) were those of pilgrims who visited Rome for religious reasons or who accompanied diplomatic corps. Following Drers example, numerous other artists and art lovers from central and northern Europe would consider a trip to Italy obligatory. In this first journey of the artists in search of classical Antiquity, other determining factors must have been the advice of the Nuremberg humanist Sebald Schreyer, a friend of Drers father20, as well as the outbreak of the plague that affected Nuremberg at this date. Fear of catching the disease may also have been behind his subsequent trips of 1505 and 1520, although it was not the most significant cause, as Drer does not make any remark remotely connected with illness in his writings. The artist spent six months in Venice, from the first half of October 1494 to the spring of 1495. In contrast to his second trip to Italy, of which we have surviving correspondence, this first one is only known to us via his drawings and watercolours of Italian subjects and from a couple of written references that indirectly refer to his journey21. This is already a great deal, however, and we should bear in mind that we have no surviving artistic records from his Wanderjahre which offer incontrovertible proof of what he saw or the people he met on the way. Drer must have left for Italy in late August 1494 or shortly after, possibly joining one of the convoys destined for the Fondaco de Tedeschi next to the Rialto Bridge in Venice. This great commercial hub of the Mediterranean offered the advantage of the presence of an important colony of German merchants, principally from Augsburg and Nuremberg, who would undoubtedly help the artist linguistically and financially. Curiosity and a natural desire to understand the world are two characteristics shared by Leonardo and Drer, while both were equally committed to mimetic drawing, anticipating the systematic natural history studies that became widespread from the mid-16th century22. Drers interest in recording rare plants and animals is constantly evident in his work. His first Venetian drawings include watercolours of a lobster (W.91) and a sea-crab (W.92) [fig. 4], animals that would have seemed extremely exotic to a citizen of Nuremberg one of the most landlocked cities in Europe and who had probably never seen the sea. In addition, the artist was always fascinated by the different types of clothing and costumes of the places that he visited, and we have numerous surviving studies of capes, cloaks and a wide variety of surprising garments. Drer made sketches of young patrician Venetian women
(W.69), in some cases comparing their clothes with local Nuremberg dress (W.75)23. He made various studies of Orientals (W.79-81) derived from the drawings in Gentile Bellinis Istanbul notebooks of his 1479-1481 trip24, copying some figures from a preparatory composition (W.78) [fig. 5] for The Procession of the Corpus Christi in the Piazza San Marco (completed in 1496). He could have seen this work in Gentiles workshop before it was sent to the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista25. Drers first trip to Italy offered him the first chance to study the classical nude26. During that winter and with the intention of familiarising himself with allantica27 forms, he made various copies of Mantegnas prints of the Bacchanal with Silenus (W.59) and the Battle of the Tritons (W.60), which illustrated passages from Diodorus and Virgil28. Drers Death of Orpheus (W.58) [fig. 6] (owned by Joachim von Sandrart in 166929 was also based on Mantegna - and Ovid as was the sheet of variations on the subject of the Rape of Europa in which we see an Oriental in a turban in the style of Bellini, a sort of cooking pot, copies of a sculpted head of a lion (possibly from San Marco), and an Apollo in the style of Lysippus (W.87). Drer studied Antonio Pollaiuolos Battle of the Nudes and used it as his source for a drawing of The Rape of the Sabines (W.82) which has similar dimensions and exaggerated musculature30. By adopting such a practice Drer was following his own teachings, as in his Manual of Painting he would recommend that young apprentices begin by copying the work of good artists until their hand acquires complete liberty31. Dating from 1495 is an ink drawing (W.85) which is the oldest known study of a female nude from life that has come down to us32. Drawn in contrapposto and leaning on a staff, this Female Nude seen from behind is different from earlier works by the artist (such as the Nude Woman [W.28] of 1493, which is not based on a live model) in its new interest in the beauty of the human body, its dimensions and proportions, an interest that would accompany the artist until his death in 1528. It is not known where else in Italy Drer travelled other than to Venice, although Padua, Mantua and Cremona have been suggested33. We do, however, know his route through the Alps thanks to a series of topographical views which are the first surviving examples of pure landscapes in early modern Europe and are among the most famous works within this genre of all times. It still seems astonishing that Drer, the new German Apelles and master of line34, also invented pure landscape based on first-hand observation, a genre developed from his use of the patches of colour created by the watercolour technique. Most of these colour washes, many of them titled in the artists own hand, must have been made on his return trip after he had encountered the light and colour to be seen in the backgrounds of paintings by Cima da Conegliano and Bellini. On his way out, Drer produced a View of Innsbruck from the banks of the river Inn by the Nordkette (W.66), as well as two watercolours of the courtyard of the imperial castle (W.67-68)35. The artist must have remained in Innsbruck for longer than usual given that various relations of his wife lived there. In fact, it is possible that Agnes accompanied her husband there and that Drer then continued on alone to Italy. This would explain why no less than three watercolours of the same place have survived36. During the return part of the journey Drer depicted various fortresses in the Tyrol and northern Italy which already reveal his interest in architecture of this type, as he would later set out formally in his Treatise on Fortification37. In May 1495 he travelled from Verona38 to Lake Garda and drew the imposing fortification at Arco (W.94) [fig. 7]39, whose impressive structure stands out against a thickly wooded mountain. Despite its apparent spontaneity, the view of Aco is based on various partial views. Drer deployed an artificial visual manipulation of this type and one dependent on the artists gaze in order to
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achieve a viewpoint lower than the real one and a dramatic emphasis40, used again in his views of Trent (W.95-96)41 and the Castle of Segonzano (W.99)42. Also dating from this period are the views of Dosso di Trento (W.97) with the church of SantApollonio in the foreground and the unfinished Italian mountain (Welsch Pirg) (W.101) of Val di Cembra43.
t h e s e co n d i ta l i a n t r i p (1505-1507) Between 10 and 17 August 1504 Drer and Agnes stayed in Wittenberg at the invitation of the painter Jacopo deBarbari44, a native of Venice who was at that point working in the service of the Elector Frederick the Wise. The Elector was Drers first patron from 1494 to 1495 and would become Martin Luthers protector45. Years later, Drer recalled in a draft to the introduction of The Four Books on Human Proportion that Barbari once showed him the figures of a man and woman drawn to conform to the traditional proportional canon, but did not wish to reveal to Drer the theoretical principles behind their creation. Drer thus decided to learn from his own initiative through reading and studying Vitruvius46. The artist could have met deBarbari during his first trip to Venice in 1494 to 1495 or more likely between 1500 and 1501 when deBarbari lived in Nuremberg for a year as artist to the Court of Maximilian I. Perhaps their conversations in Wittenberg made Drer reconsider a return to Italy. On 27 January 1505 the Fondaco deTedeschi burned down. Rebuilding began that summer, directed by an Augsburg architect named the Master Hieronymous (Girolamo Tedesco). We know that Drer travelled to Italy in the hope of securing work on the decoration of the new building, which would in the end be entrusted to Giorgione (in collaboration with the young Titian) in 150847. Drer set out for Venice at the end of the summer of 1505, passing through Augsburg, the city of the Fugger family, where he met Jrg Fugger, brother of Jakob the Rich48. In contrast to the artists first trip to Italy, when he crossed the Brenner Pass, on this second occasion he travelled across Carinthia49 in the south-east of Austria via Klagenfurt where he drew two physiognomic studies of peasant women, one smiling and the other laughing (W.371 and W.375) [fig. 8]. These were drawn from life and conceived as finished works for the artists visual anthology of people and popular foreign types. Pirckheimer lent Drer the necessary money for his trip, as Agness dowry was long gone and Drer maintained a lifestyle more elaborate than the norm for his social class. In addition he offered him constant support through his correspondence. Ten of the letters that Drer sent to Pirckheimer from Venice have survived. In contrast to the Family Chronicle and Travel Journal of the Low Countries, which we know from 17th-century copies, these are all autograph. They are, in addition, the first known letters written by an artist to a friend. It is worth emphasising their rarity at this period, even more so considering that contemporary documents relating to artists generally limit themselves to contracts and other notarial texts. The first six letters are dated between 6 January and 25 April 1506, while the last four date between 18 August and 13 October50. In them, Drer describes life in Venice, his search for new Greek editions for Pirckheimer, his purchase of Oriental rugs, cranes feathers, stainedglass, rings and emeralds which Pirckheimer had also entrusted him to acquire. The artist also describes his relations with local artists and patrons. In addition to corresponding with Pirckheimer, Agnes and his mother, Drer kept a personal diary that has not survived51. The second Italian trip was more professional than touristic to judge from the fact that important commissions for paintings, along with their corresponding preparatory drawings52, make up almost all the surviving output
of this period. While Drer went to Italy in 1494 to educate himself in classical art and the formal innovations of the Renaissance, in 1505 he returned to Venice to measure himself against local artists and outdo them on the own territory53. The Venetians considered Drer a good graphic artist but mocked him for his poor colouring. Thanks to the success of this second trip, in which he enjoyed the admiration of Venetians of the social standing of Doge Leonardo Loredan, and the Patriarch Antonio Suriano, Drer could silence his rivals. In fact, he even had to physically avoid some of them who were jealous enough to wish to try to poison him. Drer was no longer the young, beginner artist who visited the city ten years before. He was now internationally known through his prints, with an agent entrusted with selling them in Italy alone. This was certainly justified, given the huge number of local variants on Drers most exotically Germanic prints from the late 1490s, widely imitated in paintings and ceramics but above all in prints. According to Vasari, Drer travelled to Venice in 1505 with the principal aim of suing the engraver Marcantonio Raimondi for pirating his Life of the Virgin (dW.166-185) and falsifying his signature. Before the case reached court the judges decided that the Bolognese artist could copy Drer but not his monogram54. There may be some truth in this, as Drer pursued another similar case further with regard to the fraudulent use of his commercial mark55, and from that point on Marcantonio ceased to use Drers monogram (although he did go on to make a new series of prints entirely based on Drers Small Passion (dW.186-222)56. In the letter of 7 February 1506 Drer affirms that what pleased him eleven years previously now no longer did so. It is certainly the case that rather than focusing on anecdotal elements of daily life or on dramatic Italian prints, which Drer copied in order to absorb, as he thought, the mood and style of Roman antiquity57, during his second trip he began to be seriously interested in the Venetian artistic technique, both with regard to painting and drawing. Drer was fortunate to be able to count on the esteem of his good friend Giovanni Bellini, brother of Gentile, who visited him in his studio and praised him in public and before the Venetian nobility. This esteem was reciprocated on Drers part, as despite Bellinis considerable age, Drer considered him the finest painter in Venice. Nonetheless, it was Bellini who expressed the desire to purchase a work by Drer, not the other way round. In 1505 Drer painted a Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman (A.92) [fig. 9]58, whose delicate treatment recalls Joachim Camerariuss words in his short biography of Drer that he inserted in his Latin translation of the Four Books on Human Proportion (1532). Following Pliny the Elder on the rivalry between Apelles and Protogones, Camerarius recounts how Bellini asked Drer to give him some of the brushes that he used to paint hairs and which seemed to allow the German artist to paint various lines at the same time, all in perfect order and symmetry. According to Camerarius, Bellini was amazed to discover that they were ordinary brushes very similar to his own59. Using a similar style, the following year Drer painted a Portrait of a Venetian Woman who has the initials a.d. embroidered on her dress (A.95). The Giorgione-like treatment which some scholars have detected in these two works is in fact due more to their physical state (one unfinished and the other damaged) than to any technical intent. While it seems very likely that Bellini and Drer exchanged technical knowledge, the latter does not seem to have significantly modified his manner of approaching portraiture before and after his stay in Venice60. The religious paintings that Drer executed in Venice are quite a different case. In 1506 he completed the painting that would win him the most fame and prestige of his entire career and which would be his first pala in the Venetian style, albeit with a rather more horizontal format than its prototypes. This is the Madonna of the Rose Garlands (A.93), described by the artist as the German
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painting, not just for its intended destination (San Bartolommeo, the German church in Venice), but also for its clearly Germanic subject-matter. The theme is the Virgin of the Rosary, a devotional cult which arose in Cologne in the 1470s and was disseminated by the Dominicans. The German character of this painting, which was considerably damaged on various occasions in the 17th century61, is emphasised by the presence of the Emperor Maximilian in the foreground, kneeling to the left of the enthroned Virgin and opposite Pope Julius II. In the background, and appearing for the first time in a religious composition, we see the artist in front of an urban view similar to Nuremberg or Innsbruck and pointing to a signed parchment in which he states that he painted this impressive panel (162 x 194cm) in five months (Exegit quinque mestri spatio). Next to the artist is undoubtedly the patron of the work and the founder in 1504 of the German confraternity of the Rosary in Venice, Leonhard Wild, a native of Ratisbon. Also facing each other are two groups of religious and secular figures, which are undoubtedly portraits of members of the German community in Venice at this time. They include the Master Hieronymous on the right, near to Duke Erich von Braunschweig, and Jrg Fugger (also painted by Giovanni Bellini in 1474). Behind the Pope we see the Patriarch of Venice, Antonio Suriano, Cardinal Domenico Grimani and the almoner of San Bartolommeo, Burkhard von Speyer, the latter image reproducing an individual portrait in oil by Drer (A.97)62. While in Venice Drer also executed a panel of a kind he had never painted before, possibly the Madonna of the Siskin (A.94) [fig. 10], accompanied by the Infant Christ and the youthful Saint John the Baptist. This was a previously unknown subject in northern painting although common in Italian art. However, it is more likely that this work was Christ among the Doctors (A.98), one of Drers most innovative and bold works, dated 1506 and inscribed Opus quinque dierum (a work of five days, not including the preparatory drawings). Giving the Italian provenance of the work at the beginning of the 17th century, some scholars have suggested that it could be the painting that Bellini wished to commission from Drer and which he would finally have acquired. In addition to technical and stylistic factors, there are various (lost) iconographic precedents attributed to Bellini and his brother-inlaw Andrea Mantegna63, suggesting that Drer designed an explicit homage to the intended recipient of his work. In addition to his undoubted merits as a pictor mimeticos, reflected in writings on Drer both in his own day and in later centuries64, it could be said that the artist aimed to add the skills of a pictor celerrimus [rapid painter]. This was a standard term of praise applied by Pliny the Elder to Pausias of Sikyon, who in order to demonstrate his rapidity completed in one day a painting of a child described as hemeresios - painted in a day. Pliny also applied the phrase to Nicomachus and to his pupil Philoxenus of Eretria65. The comparable inscriptions on The Virgin of the Rose Garlands and above all on Christ among the Doctors refer to this desire on Drers part. Facilit66 was a particular virtue of the Venetian school of painting67 and in this work Drer used a rapid technique, applying the colour alla prima directly over the priming and the under-drawing without the use of various layers of paint68. Further evidence that he conceived these two paintings as a sort of conceptual pair is the fact that he painted them more or less simultaneously, as revealed in the studies on carta azzurra (or carta turchina) of the Angels Head (W.385) [fig. 11], the Head of the young Christ aged Twelve (W.404), the Hands of the Emperor Maximilian (W.392), and the Hand with Book (W.406). These were all originally on one sheet of paper, although this was divided up in the 19th century69. The second Italian trip marks the beginning of Drers serious interests in art theory. At the end of his trip he told Pirckheimer of his intention to go to
Bologna to learn the secrets of perspective from someone prepared to reveal them to him70. There he would take the time to visit Scheurl and stayed for eight or ten days before returning to Venice and some weeks later setting out for Nuremberg. For the present author it would thus seem that the desire to acquire this theoretical knowledge (as he did at this point) should not be considered one of the reasons that encouraged Drer to organise his second Italian trip, although this knowledge would be reflected in his first theoretical treatise, On Proportion of 152571. The artist also visited Padua72 and Ferrara73, while a trip to Rome has also been suggested, for which there is some circumstantial evidence74 but which is significantly not mentioned by Pirckheimer, Scheurl, Camerarius or the artist himself. Furthermore, none of his works clearly demonstrates that Drer was in Rome.
d i p lo m at i c t r i p s a ro u n d t h e g e r m a n e m p i re : b a m b e rg , au g s bu rg a n d z u ri c h ( 1 5 1 7 - 1 5 1 9 ) Drer returned to Nuremberg from Venice in January or February 1507. We have no indications of further trips for another ten years, which is not surprising as this period was the most artistically active of his entire career75. From a letter dated 11 October 1517 sent by canon Lorenz Beheim to Pirckheimer, we know that Drer visited the Bishop of Bamberg, Georg III Schenk von Limburg, that year, painting his portrait and that of his buffoon Sella and staying in the Bishops palace. Schenk von Limburg, one of the great humanists and artistic patrons of his day, generously rewarded Drer and offered him the seat of honour at his table. Both of these paintings are now lost76. In the summer of 1518 the Imperial Diet was convened in Augsburg. Drer attended as part of the Nuremberg delegation (comprising the patricians Caspar Ntzel and Leonhard Groland and the first secretary of the Municipal Council of Nuremberg, Lazarus Spengler, a neighbour and personal friend of the artists). The Diet saw the first significant confrontation between the papal representation and Luther. Drer appreciated the importance of this event and painted portraits of as many of the participants as he was able in the three weeks that it lasted. Drer produced life drawings of Jakob Fugger the Rich, possibly basing his painted portrait on this work (A.143); the recently appointed Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg (W.568), subsequently producing an engraving of this image in 1519 (dW.89) of which an edition of 200 impressions was given to the sitter77; Count Philipp zu Solms (W.570) [fig. 12]; and Cardinal Matthus Lang von Wellenburg of Salzburg (W.911), diplomat and imperial counsellor to Maximilian. From this time on, Drer would come to appreciate the propagandist potential of the portrait in an unprecedented manner. His output of portraits increased enormously, possibly impelled by a new need to record the appearance of all the notable figures that he encountered, without concern for their social status. He kept many of these portraits for himself. On 28 June Drer executed a charcoal portrait of the Emperor Maximilian in his small study at the top of the palace (W.567). Four woodcuts were based on this image. Intended for maximum dissemination around Europe, only the first, published by Johann Kramer, appeared during the Emperors lifetime (dW.252). In addition, Drer based four oil paintings on this image which he replicated using the technique of silhouetting the outlines. One is on canvas (A.145), and was possibly taken by the artist on his trip to the Low Countries as a processional standard for the coronation of Charles V78. Another was on panel (A.146). Given the relatively summary nature of the line, comparable to other portrait studies of this date, it is difficult to decide whether these portrait were an imperial commission or simply another image of one of the participants (albeit a central one) in the Diet.
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Between 21 and 24 May 1519, during the trip that he took to Zurich with Pirckheimer and the burgomaster Martin Tucher as part of a diplomatic mission, Drer had the opportunity to watch the siege and bombardment of the fortress at Hohenasperg, which belonged to Duke Ulrich von Wrttemberg and was defended by Hans Leonhard von Reischach. Drer produced a precise ink drawing of all the episodes prior to the surrender of the fortress to the Swabian League led by Jrg von Frundsberg (W.262) [fig. 13]79. While the artist had shown no interest in recording the landscapes he had seen in Bamberg or Augsburg (which were too close to Nuremberg to be of interest to a resident of that city), in Hohenasperg he did take note of them, largely inspired by his new interest in military defence and fortifications80. Following his arrival in Zurich, Drer met prominent citizens such as Ulrico Zwinglio and the painter Hans Leu the Younger81.
t h e t r i p to t h e low co u n t r i e s (1520-1521) On 12 July 1520, the forty-nine year old Drer left Nuremberg for the Low Countries. The diary that he kept during his year-long trip away from home82 is unprecedented in art literature and reveals Drer to us as lacking in any artificiality or pretence. No other period of his life offers us a clearer visualisation of the artists daily activities. At first sight this is a very precise account book in which he set down his expenses to the last detail, from costs of transport, food, lodgings and purchases to money lost gambling or spent on alms, or in baths and taverns. Drer equally carefully records what could be considered profits, i.e. amounts derived from the sale of his own paintings, drawings and prints. On occasions the artist exchanged his works, and he was also careful to note the wide variety of gifts that he received or gave. Apart from this purely economic data, which is important for the information it offers on the artist at this time83, the diary extends from simple impressions to detailed accounts of what Drer saw and the people he met. The more involved and moved the artist felt, the more vivid his written impressions, and it is these comments that reveal his character and opinion on the merchants, artists, princes, places, monuments and works of art that he encountered. Drer worked intensely throughout his entire stay in the Low Countries, despite the fact that most of his time was spent travelling, making purchases and fulfilling artistic obligations. Above all he devoted himself to producing a very large body of portraits. It almost seems that every person he met on his travels posed for him. In his diary the artist mentions around 140 drawings (of which around 100 survive, a tenth of his entire oeuvre of drawings). Most are portraits, and it is very likely that he made still more which he did not even remember to mention. When recording these portraits, Drer almost always makes note of their technique. He makes constant use of the term conterfeyt, derived from the Latin contrafactus and meaning likeness or copy from life. The term was one used by Renaissance artists to signify a particular intent towards realism84. Practically all the artists portraits of 1520-1521 are executed in charcoal on large sheets of paper (around 35 x 25cm). Drer normally charged 1 Florin for them or gave them to sitters who had done him favours85. Various brush drawings and others in white lead have also survived from this period. Of the eleven oil paintings executed at this time, five were bust-length portraits which included the hands in the Flemish style that still prevailed in that region. At least three have survived: Portrait of Bernhard von Reesen (A.163); Portrait of Lorenz Sterck (A.164); and Portrait of a Man in the Museo del Prado (A.165) [fig. 14], which the present author considers to be a portrait of Joost Plankfelt86. Now lost is the portrait that Drer executed of Christian II of Denmark in July 152187.
In addition to these paintings, watercolours and individual drawings, we also have two notebooks used on this trip. The first of them, which Drer started to fill up in ink from around the 22 July 1520, has a vertical format (about 16 x 10.5 cm). Around ten pages from this volume are known, now widely dispersed. The portraits of the goldsmith Stefan Capello of Malines (W.745); of Joost Plankfelt, Drers friend and host in Antwerp (W.747) [fig.15]; of the commercial agent Hans Pfaffrot (W.748); and of the imperial captain and lute player Felix Hungersperg (W.749) probably belonged to this notebook, among others. Later, when the artist temporarily left the Low Countries to attend the coronation of the Emperor in Aachen, around 4 October, he took another oblong-format notebook with him (12.5 x 19 cm) in which he drew in silverpoint on prepared paper. We know of fifteen sheets from this album, twelve of them illustrated on both sides. Executed in a firm, methodical style, the drawings cover every subject that attracted Drers attention: landscapes, clothing, animals, portraits, etc. Not all the portraits in this second notebook were drawn from life, as some were ricordi of charcoal drawings that he had previously sold or exchanged. From the use of both notebooks we can deduce that the charcoal portraits were executed for the sitters while the pen and metalpoint ones were kept by the artist. All this documentation offers us the fullest portrait of any period of Drers life and constitutes one of the most intimate travel records of an artist of any period. They easily enable us to share the experience of the twelve months that he spent in the Low Countries. The reasons for Drers trip are set out at the beginning of his diary: These are the trips that Albrecht Drer made so that his wife could visit the Low Countries and to receive from the Emperor, king and lord, great honours and a favourable spirit, as can be seen and heard here. This opening reveals various things. On the one hand, it clarifies why on this occasion and exceptionally Drer was accompanied by his wife, who wanted to enjoy a tourist trip, and her maid Susanna. In addition, the expression as can be seen and heard here seems startling for a diary that one might suppose to be private. Assuming it is not an addition by the copyist, can we infer that Drer was sufficiently self-aware as to bear in mind later readers for posterity? Finally, it is evident that the principal (although not exclusive) objective of the trip was that Drer was hoping to persuade the young Charles V to confirm his annual pension of 100 Rhenish Florins which Charless grandfather, the deceased Maximilian, had granted the artist on 6 September 1515. Drers reasons were not just financial but also pressingly urgent personal ones. In a letter of early 1520 sent to Georg Spalatin, counsellor to Frederick of Saxony, the artist noted that he was losing his sight and the dexterity of his hand, possibly due to age or an incipient illness. For Drer, whose reputation was based on precision and exquisite detail, this could be a disaster, and he therefore envisaged the need to claim the imperial pension to support him in a foreseeably difficult old age88. Drer saw his privileges confirmed, after great labours and efforts, in November 152089. He delayed his return to Nuremberg, however, for a further nine months. Such a lengthy stay can only be explained by an additional reason of an economic kind: the artist also saw his journey as a leisure trip and business affair in which he devoted his attentions to selling, giving away or exchanging his Large books of woodcuts (the Apocalypse [dW.109-126], the Great Passion [dW.154-165], the Life of the Virgin [dW.166-185], the Small Passion [dW.186-222] and the engravings and etchings which he had brought with him in large quantities. He also had other prints by his friend and former workshop head, Hans Baldung Grien, and by his pupil Hans Schuffelein. The fact that Drer brought so many prints with him indicates that he was confident in finding a market for them in the Low Countries. He must have known that his prints had been in demand there for some time (as a result of being easily transportable)
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from artisans who used them as a source of new forms and motifs, figures, poses, facial expressions, themes and compositions. Drers name was famous in the Low Countries and his art was well known there. This explains the constant references in his diaries to the gestures of esteem and admiration that he received from his colleagues throughout his stay, in contrast to the treatment that he received from almost all the painters in Venice some years before. Through Drers words we can see that the artist was truly moved by the banquets in his honour and princely receptions held by various artists guilds. With touching ingenuity not devoid of a certain note of pride and satisfaction Drer expressed his gratitude for the numerous displays of appreciation extended to him in many cities that he visited. The diary also contains the first record of art criticism on a non-Italian artist. In the correspondence that he maintained with Jakob Heller (1507-1509), Drer had called on the judgement of intelligent people and other painters and for them to pronounce on his work90. Despite the undoubted benefits derived from the contemplation of all the works of art that he admired, the artists trip to the Low Countries was not a study trip, or at least not of the same kind as the formative ones of 1490-1495. From a reading of his diary it is evident that what Drer admired in the Netherlandish artists was their technique rather than their skills at composition or invention, of which he considered himself the greatest exponent. The portraits that he made of artists whom he personally respected constitute an additional nuance in this respect. Probably on their own request, Drer gave less famous artists (and at times equally famous ones, such as Joachim Patinir and Lucas van Leyden) impressions of his prints for use as sources of motifs. The artist lived in Antwerp throughout the entire duration of the trip. He only made brief visits to nearby cities such as Malines, Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Aachen, attending the coronation of Charles V in the latter. Despite this, he did not personally meet the two most famous artists of the Antwerp school of this period: Quentin Massys and Jan Gossaert. In August 1520, shortly after his arrival, Drer laconically noted that he was in the house of Master Quintines. Apparently he did not meet the artist, as he would surely have devoted more space to an encounter with a painter who was at the height of his fame in 1520 and whose reputation eclipsed that of the other Antwerp artists. Massyss name does not reappear in the diary. This could be for various reasons: perhaps he was absent when Drer paid his visit, or ill (although in this case Drer would surely have called again). Possibly Massys avoided him out of pure shyness, or more probably for reasons of professional pride or jealousy. This behaviour would tally with some descriptions that we have of his character91. A similar case was that of Jan Gossaert, who was, after Massys, the most celebrated Flemish painter of his day, in addition to working as an engraver and etcher. On 9 December 1520 Drer saw one of Massyss most important works, the triptych of the Descent from the Cross, on the high altar in the Premonstrant abbey of Middelburg, capital of Zealand. Commissioned by the abbot, Maximiliam of Burgundy (son of the bastard Philip of Burgundy and patron of Gossaert) and painted between 1518 and 1520, it was destroyed in an iconoclast fire in 1568. It would seem to have had two very large wings that needed stands to keep them open. In his celebrated Book of Painting (1604) Karel van Mander noted that when the famous Albrecht Drer came to Antwerp to see this work he was profoundly impressed92. In his diary, however, Drer gives no such idea, noting that it seemed to him not so good in the modelling of the heads as in the colour, an opinion that comprises the only criticism on Drers part of the work of his Netherlandish colleagues. With the exception of these two cases noted above, it could be said that Drer made contact with all the leading Netherlandish artists of around 1520,
be they painters, sculptors, stained-glass designers, illuminators or goldsmiths. The first artist that he met, a few days after arriving in Antwerp, was Patinir. A friend and collaborator of Massys, Patinir is the living local artist most mentioned in Drers diary. It seems that the two got along well, often eating together and exchanging ideas. In his text Drer calls Master Joachim the good landscape painter. Patinir had opted to focus on the depiction of panoramic landscapes that combined real and fantastical elements. Less gifted in representing the human figure, he received help from Drer in the form of drawings, such as the four studies of Saint Christopher on grey-tinted paper93. Drer also drew his portrait94. The first cities that Drer visited after he settled in Antwerp were Malines and Brussels in late August 1520. His intention was to obtain good advice and useful contacts which would support his petition to have his pension from Maximilian I renewed by the new emperor. Drer succeeded in cultivating the friendship of two artists at the court of Margaret of Austria, Charles Vs aunt: the German sculptor Konrad Meit and the painter Bernard van Orley, whom he depicted in charcoal (W.810). Drer met various officials at Margarets court and received guarantees from the regent herself that she would speak to her nephew in favour of his petition95. Not all of Drers stay in Brussels was devoted to court intrigues. He also took the time to visit the gardens of the park at Warande, located behind the palace of the Dukes of Brabant, and commented that he had never seen anything as amusing and agreeable, it seemed more like a paradise. Drer took notes in the small zoo in the palace at Brussels (W.822 and St.1521/40) [fig. 17], as well as producing an overall view and another in delicate watercolour that depicts areas of landscape, lions, an ibex, a lynx and a baboon, whose weight and size he noted. How uninteresting the shellfish that he drew on his first trip to Venice must now have seemed! Just over three months later, when he heard that the ship the Fortuna had caused a whale to beach on the coast of Zealand, he could barely restrain himself and left Antwerp in the direction of Ziericksee in mid-winter, travelling on horseback to Bergen-op-Zoom and from there by boat to Goes and Arnemuiden. On his way through the latter he rather exaggeratedly described the dangers that he had endured in his (unsuccessful) effort to see the whale: it seems that a boat had hit the towing line of the boat in which he was travelling and dragged it out towards the open sea. During this trip Drer contracted the ague which would cost him his life in 1528. While in Zealand the artist drew an impressive head of a walrus (W.823) [fig. 18] which he would later reuse as the head of a dragon as the attribute of Saint Margaret in a sacra conversazione of 1522 (W.855). During Drers second trip to Venice he had spent time acquiring objects for Pirckheimers Wunderkammer, but in the Low Countries he mainly purchased for himself. To judge from his diary, once again we find a personality characterised by contrasts: on the one hand Drer saved money as much as possible, while on the other he spent lavishly on a wide range of useless and at times baffling objects, in the manner of a passionate collector. The list of gifts and purchases, many of them very expensive, suggests a bizarre range of items: buffalo and ox horns, moose hooves, white and red coral, coconuts, exotic feathers, bamboo canes, turtles, three parrots, a monkey, small dried fish, seashells, a talisman stone, Italian seeds, Chinese porcelain, gems, and more. Drer was attracted to everything that was rare and curious96. Drer was stimulated by encounters with the unknown, by new places and by the past, and the diary offers conclusive evidence of this. In 1519, following Charles Vs visits to Seville and Valladolid, the emperor sent to Brussels a group of 150 spectacular Mexican objects brought from the New World. Drer saw them in the palace at Coudenberg between 27 August and 2 September 1520,
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where they filled two rooms97. He was the first European artist to show an appreciation for Pre-Columbian culture98 and the only one of those who saw the display to record his overt admiration for the Aztecs and their treasures99. I have never in all my life seen anything that has so filled my heart as these things, as there I saw marvellous works of art and I was amazed at the subtle ingenia of the men of those distant lands. Truly I am unable to express everything I felt there. As a consequence of its exploration in the East and West Indies, Antwerp had replaced Venice as the mercantile centre of Europe by 1520. Overseas trade was controlled by the Portuguese colony based in Antwerp from at least 1498, followed by the Italians, Spanish, English and Germans100. This rich and productive group was small in number but despite only comprising a few hundred people was enough to give Antwerp a cosmopolitan air and a new spirit which contrasted with the late Medieval one. Drers regular new friends and companions in Antwerp were primarily the commercial representatives of the king of Portugal. These men, known as factors, included some of the most important members of the foreign communities in Antwerp. Drers rapid and close contacts with the Portuguese must be explained by previous acquaintance. Between September 1519 and January 1520 Rodrigo Fernandes de Almada had travelled to Germany, spending a lengthy period in Nuremberg on the kings orders to finalise the large-scale barter of spices from the Indies in exchange for copper bars and weapons. It is likely that during this time he made contact with Drer, possibly through Pirckheimer101. The royal factor was authorised to acquire goods to any value in the name of the Portuguese Crown. On Drers arrival this agency was in the hands of Joo Brando, assisted by the secretary Rodrigo (Rui) Fernandes de Almada, a man of great abilities and humanist background. Drer portrayed him (W.813) and his North African servant Katherina (W.818). Wishing to make a special gift to his best friend in Antwerp, with whom the artist shared the veneration that European intellectuals held for the secular patron of scholars, Drer painted a Saint Jerome in oil with much effort (A.162) [fig. 19]. He thus invented the prototype of the half-length Saint Jerome meditating in front of a skull with his books on the table. No other panel by Drer was so copied, imitated and reproduced in the Flemish Renaissance, not just for its unique quality, but also for its iconographic novelty102. Drers trip to the Low Countries constitutes the maximum expression of his desire for artistic rivalry and his intention of going beyond earlier and contemporary artists. The river trip that he made from the start of April 1521 to Bruges and Ghent was brief but is particularly interesting for what it reveals about his knowledge of 15th-century Flemish painting. In his diary he only describes Rogier van der Weyden and Hugo van der Goes as great masters. Immediately below them he places Johannes (Jan van Eyck). The altarpieces of the great masters those still referred to in certain old-fashioned art-historical texts as Flemish primitives or considered Medieval - captured Drers imagination. The artists father had taught him to venerate these works, which undoubtedly he always longed to see at first hand. He must have absorbed their stately splendour, although he may have thought such results were achieved by long-outdated methods. Nonetheless, Drers most admiring words on a painting seen during this trip were those he devoted to Van Eycks Adoration of the Lamb. On 10 April the artist visited the famous altarpiece (completed ca.1430-1432) in the Vyd chapel of the old church of Saint John in Ghent, now the Cathedral of Saint Bavo. Speaking of this polyptich, Drer enthusiastically wrote: It is an exquisite painting and highly thought out, in particular Eve, Mary and God the Father are marvellous103. Any contemporary critic would agree with these words.
Drer was aware that he had gone beyond the masters of his youth (Wolgemut, Schongauer) in the art of line and beyond the friends of his adult years in theory and pictorial practice (Bellini, Barbari). Now he had to measure himself against his exact contemporaries and rivals in Italy and Flanders in the field in which he felt himself invincible: graphic invention. Despite stylistic and conceptual differences as draughtsmen104, Raphael and Drer had a high opinion of each other, as Vasari noted in the first edition of his Lives. It has been suggested that the two artists met in Venice in 1505 where Raphael had travelled to complete his artistic training105, but if this meeting had taken place Vasari would undoubtedly have mentioned it. According to Vasari, Drer sent Raphael his self-portrait painted in watercolour on a linen canvas. This sort of secular Saint Veronicas Veil, now lost, was inherited by Giulio Romano in Mantua and was seen there by Sandrart at the end of the 17th century106. Raphael was highly impressed by this example of Drers art and in exchange sent him many of his drawings on paper, highly esteemed by Albrecht107. Of these exchanges, which took place in 1513-1515 the only specific reference we have is to a red chalk drawing of a male nude in two different poses related to The Victory at Ostia in the Stanza dellIncendio in the Vatican, or to the tapestry cartoon for the Blindness of Elymas108. This in turn was an homage to Drer as it imitated one of his woodcuts of 1510 of The Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist (dW.152)109. Raphael made use of Drers prints on other occasions110 and apparently had some of them pinned on the walls of his studio without feeling any shame about this but rather admiring them hugely111. Vasari evokes the rivalry that existed between the two artists: When Raphael saw Albrecht Drers prints, and wanting to show what he also was capable of in this art form, he made Antonio Bolognese [Marcantonio Raimondi] study this medium at length. The results of Raimondis study of Drers prints was mentioned earlier in this article. After Raphaels death on 6 April 1520 (coincidentally, the date of Drers death eight years later), Drer acquired further items of memorabilia relating to the Italian artist. Tommaso Vincidor, a pupil of Raphaels who was in Flanders on the instructions of Pope Leo X to supervise the arrival of the tapestries of The Acts of the Apostles commissioned for the Sistine Chapel112, asked to see Drer in September and gave him an old gold ring with an inset cameo. In exchange, Drer gave him some of his best prints. In early October 1520 he gave Vincidor a complete set of his engravings to be given to another painter in Rome who in turn would send Drer Raphaels things. Finally, Vincidor executed Drers portrait in oil (now lost) to take to Rome, a work now known through a copy by Willem van Haecht. On 10 June 1521, at the end of his sixth and last stay in Antwerp, Drer made contact with the Flemish artist of his day whom he most admired and who most aroused his interest: Lucas van Leyden. This painter and printmaker was enormously successful in his time due to the popularity of his prints. Two days later Drer drew his portrait in metalpoint (W.816) [fig. 20] and a short time after exchanged 8 Florins-worth of his own prints for prints by Van Leyden, suggesting a good relationship between the two artists resulting in mutual appreciation of their printed work113. Van Mander offers a more picturesque although not necessarily less plausible account in his biography of Drer: He visited our Low Countries and on that occasion was able to meet various artists and admire their ingenious creations with great delight and pleasure. He was strongly drawn to the works of Lucas van Leyden and when he saw him was so amazed and stupefied that he was left speechless and breathless. Having admired him for a long time, Drer affectionately took him by the arm, surprised by the contrast between his small size and the grandeur of his reputation. Lucas, for his part, was happy and moved to have met such a distinguished man, whose prints he had known for many years and whose fame
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had preceded them. These two beacons and treasures of art the one German, the other from the Low Countries - made gifts of a mutual exchange of portraits and warmly enjoyed each others company114. This episode is concluded in the Life of Van Leyden, although in a more tentative tone: Some believe that there was a constant dispute between him and Albrecht Drer, and if Albrecht created something, Lucas immediately engraved the same story or scene, in a tacit competition of reciprocal emulation; until one day Albrecht Drer visited the Low Countries and executed Lucass portrait from life in Leyden, while Lucas painted Drers on a small panel and they enjoyed long-lasting good relations with each other115. Van Manders account is a faithful one apart from the place in which the two artists met, which was not Leyden but Antwerp. In particular, it must have been Drers example which encouraged him to produce his large drawings of portrait heads, almost all executed during his brief stay in Antwerp, where he remained until 28 June. In the same way, Van Leydens series of engravings of the Passion of 1521 and his late prints of nudes are directly dependent on compositions by Drer116. Drers travel diary of the Low Countries ends with his return to Nuremberg, but there are no further entries from the time of his arrival in Cologne on 15 July 1521, around three weeks before his return to his native city. The trip lasted just over a year, more or less the same length of time as his two visits to Italy. The consequences of Drers stay would become evident in his last years, in which he devoted almost all his energies to portraits, prints and art theory. According to the penultimate surviving letter written to Pirckheimer from Venice, of 23 September 1506, Drer departed from that city, leaving behind commissions which he had rejected and which would have brought him more than 2,000 Ducats. In the tenth and last letter of around 13 October we find the famous phrase: How I will miss the sun! Here I am a lord, but at home only a parasite. We should not, however, overestimate the meaning of this statement, otherwise how can we explain that Drer decided to remain for the rest of his life in Nuremberg, despite the offers he received in Venice (200 Ducats a year), and which he would also receive in Antwerp (300 gold Florins annually). In both cities he was offered exemption from taxes, free lodgings and payment aside from the works he executed, all of which the artist rejected in order to remain in his native city117. If he chose to make this decision it was not because of his attachment to his roots (or not solely for that reason), but rather due to his elevated social status within the local community. Drer had been a member of the Grossen Rat (Great Council) of Nuremberg since 1509, the year that he acquired the splendid Drerhaus118. In 1512 the emperor Maximilian had requested from the Council that he be exempted from any type of tax or levy119. Drers name was thus revered not just in Nuremberg but throughout Germany. No other painter enjoyed more municipal favours than Drer in the last years of his life120. Only his enthusiasm for travel, his Wanderlust, combined with his formidable artistic and anthropological curiosity, occasionally took him beyond the banks of the Pegnitz.
7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34.
35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49.
50. 51. 52.
n ot e s
1. 2. Friedlnder 1902, pp. 1-4. See in this sense, for example, the opinions of the Andalusian gentleman traveller Pero Tafur, who visited Central Europe among other places in the mid-15th century (Tafur 1995, pp. 142-143). This and other commentaries in Evans 2002. White 1971. Lebenszeugnisse: Familienchronik, in Drer 2000a, p. 1611. Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, pp. 294-295. Vasari 2002, pp. 746-747. Not by chance, Vasari attributed this print by Schongauer (The Temptations of Saint Anthony) to Drer; in the giuntina it is firmly attributed to Schongauer (Vasari 1998, pp. 11-12).
3. 4. 5. 6.
53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59.
In the identification of Drers drawings we have preferably opted for Winkler 1936-1939. If not, Strauss 1975. Winzinger 1972. Borchert 2001a. English 1996. For Drers graphic work, I have followed the numbering used by Schoch / Mende / Scherbaum 2001-2004. Eichberger 1996. This hypothesis by Strocka 1972 has not, however, enjoyed universal support. In Strasbourg, Drer produced a woodcut [dW.264.1] for the Missale speziale by Johann Grninger, published there on 13 November 1493. On these self-portraits, see Checa 1993, pp. 24-27. The paintings are catalogued here in line with the suggestions of Anzelewsky 1991. Wilson 1995. See Schrer 1937, followed by Evers 1972 and Chtelet 1975, among others. Cf. Drer, A., Lebenszeugnisse: Familienchronik, in Drer 2000a, p. 1608. Austin 1983, pp. 46-48. In addition, Drer would also design a portrait medal for Schreyer in 1512. See Baraano 1983, pp. 294-295. This led Luber 2005 to reject (for reasons as provocative as they are unconvincing) the idea that Drer travelled Venice in 1494-1495, as previously suggested by Smith 1979. Salvini 1977. Panofsky 1989, p. 62. Chong 2005, passim. Janitsch 1883. Wickhoff 1880. Landau / Parshall 1994, p. 69. Simon 1971. Schuster 1978. Evans 1986. Kunsttheoretische Schriften: Lehrbuch der Malerei, in Drer 2000a, p. 867. Koreny 1999. Panofsky 1989, p. 35. See the famous laudatio by Erasmus of Rotterdam (1528) discussed by Panofsky 1951. Drer portrayed Erasmus on two occasions during his trip to the Low Countries, the second around 1 September 1520. One of these portraits (W.805) was executed in charcoal in Erasmus house in Anderlecht near Brussels. (Vanden Branden 1998, p. 22). Koschatzky 1973, nos. 5-6. Cremer 1975, vol. 2, pp. 125-130. Drer 2004. In Verona Drer could have observed the citys defensive installations. See Giesecke 1920. Gerstenberg 1910 and, in much more detail, Passamani 1997. On this method of spatial distortion used by Drer, see Leber 1988, pp. 21-59. Rusconi 1936. Passamani 1964. Hoeniger 1936 and Pappenheim 1936. Warnke 1993, pp. 129-130. Price 2003, pp. 231-235. Schlosser 1981, pp. 238-239. Carpeggiani 1994. Hutchison 1990, p. 84. Hypothesis proposed by Ginhart 1962, accepted by Anzelewsky 1983, pp. 169-178. Drer, nonetheless, could also have made these studies in Venice, where there was a Slovenian community. Lebenszeugnisse: Briefwechsel (Auszge), in Drer 2000a, pp. 1744-1777. On this lost little book of writings compiled by Drer in Venice, set within the context of his personal writings and theoretical texts, see the commentaries by Gonzlez Garca 2004a. Twenty-one preparatory studies survive for the Feast of the Rose Garlands [W.380-390 and W.392-401] almost all drawn on Venetian style, blue-toned paper; four for Christ among the Doctors (W.404-407); and three for the Madonna of the Siskin (W.403 and W.408-409). Drer would once again use this technique in commissioned works such as the central panel of the Heller Altarpiece of 1509 (A.108-115) and in the Saint Jerome of 1521 (A.162). We can thus apply to Drer the model established by Goffen 2004, pp. 26-29. Vasari 1568, pp. 297-298. Koerner 2004. Pon 2004, esp. pp. 70-72. In total Raimondi directly copied Drer in around 74 of his prints. Warburg 2005. Glck 1924. Smith 1972, subsequently expanded in Smith 1973. There is another anecdote that associates this second Italian trip with the first. Camerarius relates that on this second trip, Mantega
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asked Drer to visit him so that he could strengthen his abilities and precision in drawing with some scientific principles, but Mantegas death prevented the two artists from meeting. See Parshall 1978. Campbell 1990, pp. 234, 274, no. 15. Kotkov 2002. See Humfrey 1991. Bialostocki 1959. Bilbao 1996, p. 11. Plinio: Nat. Hist. XXXV. 108-110 and 123-124. Quoted in Plinio 1987, pp. 107-109 and 112-113. See Boesten-Stengel 1990. Baxandall 2000, pp. 154-155. Roskill 2000, pp. 90-91. Bosshard 1993. See. HW [H. Widauer] in Vienna 2003, pp. 333-337. Giosefi 1982. Drer 2000b. Fara 1997. Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, p. 291. See Arnolds 1959, pp. 187-190, followed by Winzinger 1966 and other authors. Just to cite the most famous works, during this decade Drer painted, among other panels: Adam and Eve [A.103-104], The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand [A.105], the Heller Altarpiece and the Landauer Altarpiece [A.118]; he published the series of the Small Passion [dW.186-222], the Great Passion [dW.154-165] and the Life of the Virgin [dW.166-185]; he engraved the three master prints, The Knight, Death and the Devil [dW.69], Saint Jerome in his Study [dW.70], and Melancholia [dW.71]; and he collaborated on decorative projects for Maximilian, such as the Triumphal Arch [dW.238], the Triumphal Chariot [dW.239], and Maximilians Prayerbook [St.1515/1-45]. Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, p. 258. Lebenszeugnisse: Briefwechsel (Auszge), in Drer 2000a, p. 1802. Luber 1991. From Antwerp Drer attended the coronation of Charles V in the company of Hans Ebner, Leonhard Groland and Niklas Haller, who also comprised the delegation entrusted with escorting the imperial regalia from the place where it was kept in the Nuremberg Hospital of the Holy Spirit (Heilig-Geist-Spital) to the church of Our Lady in Aachen. See Reitzenstein 1971. This pen drawing can also be associated with a River Landscape in silverpoint [W.478]. Gonzlez Garca 2004b. Zink 1971. Lebenszeugnisse: Tagebuch der Reise in die Niederlande Anno 1520, in Drer 2000a, pp. 1624-1743. The [Spanish] translation of the passages from the travel diary of the trip to the Low Countries are from E. J. Gonzlez Garca, and will be included in a forthcoming edition of Drers personal manuscripts. And are the only ones commented on by Wittkower / Wittkower 2000, pp. 248-249. See Parshall 1993. Drer only paid the models who posed for his paintings on two occasions: the old man aged 93 who posed for him in Antwerp as the model for the Saint Jerome in Lisbon [W.788-790], and a Carmelite nun in Cologne [St.1520/27]. On this latter portrait, see Van Gelder 1971. As is evident from the comparison with the above-mentioned drawing in pen from the first notebook [W. 747], whose inscription reads: Das jst mein wirt zw antorf Jobst plankelt 1520 (This is my host in Antwerp, Joost Plankfelt). The physiognomic details are absolutely identical, from the hair to the angular eyebrows, the swollen eyelids, the bridge of the nose, the distinctive lips, square line of the profile and straight chin, complemented by the thick robe with fur collar and pleated shirt, whose wrinkled edging is visible in a similar way in both works. Drer delivered the portrait to Plankfelt between 12 and 16 May 1521 (in the portrait in the Prado there are vestiges of this date). It has been suggested that this is not Plankfelt because of the clothing, firstly because he had only a middling social status, and secondly because the painting was executed in spring, but this is not convincing. (Cf. PSM [P. Silva Maroto], in Madrid 2005). It is well known that in portraits of this type sitters were shown in their best clothing; this is the case with the portraits of Von Reesen (painted between 16 March and 5 April 1521) and Sterck (immediately before that of Plankfelt, which Drer mentions straight after), in which both sitters wear furs, despite the fact that it was spring in Antwerp (which would not, however, have been particularly warm). For a review of the above-mentioned exhibition in the Museo del Prado, see Gonzlez Garca 2005. Sass 1976. Nonetheless, a previous portrait of King Christian in charcoal has survived [W.815]. Lebenszeugnisse: Briefwechsel (Auszge), in Drer 2000a., p. 1803. This amount must have been deducted from the contribution paid by the city of Nuremberg to the Imperial treasury. The original of this confirmation, dated 4 November 1520 in Cologne and countersigned by Albrecht of Brandenburg and by the vice-chancellor Niklas Ziegler, is now lost, although there is an old copy of it in the Nuremberg municipal archives (Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, pp. 90-91).
90. Lebenszeugnisse: Briefwechsel (Auszge), in Drer 2000a, p. 1788. Drer would repeat this in the preparatory manuscripts to his Manual on Painting (Kunsttheoretische Schriften: Lehrbuch der Malerei, in Drer 2000a). 91. Van Mander 2000, pp. 154-156. Massys lived on the Rodestraat, in a house known as De Simme (The monkey) which he purchased in 1519. Now lost, in 1520 it was one of the principal monuments of the city, and Drer may have gone there simply for that reason. 92. See Van Mander 2000, pp. 139-140. 93. Surviving is a Saint Christopher in ink and white hightlights on grey prepared paper that may have formed part of this group of drawings [W.801], which can also be associated with another sheet of nine studies on this iconography [W.800]. The subject of Saint Christopher carrying the Infant Christ with a landscape background is known in Patinirs oeuvre; the most important example can be seen in El Escorial. 94. Although now lost, the portrait of Patinir undoubtedly corresponds to the engraving in Dominicus Lampsoniuss collection, Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae inferioris effigies (1572), in which the Antwerp artist is depicted aged around fifty. Through the inscription on the print written by Lampsonius and copied by Van Mander and Drers diary, we know that Drer executed the portrait in metalpoint on an unlikely-sounding support of slate, or perhaps panel. See Van Mander 2000, p. 163. 95. The Archduchess received the artist again at the end of his stay in the Low Countries in her palace at Malines, where she showed him her collection of works of art and her library. On Margaret of Austrias art collections and art patronage, an essential text is Eichberger 2000. Drer was particularly impressed by 40 small panels painted in oil of a beauty and purity that he had never seen before. These were the panels of the so-called Polyptich of Isabel the Catholic on the subject of the Life of Christ, painted by Juan de Flandes and Michel Sittow. It originally consisted of 47 panels (27 now survive), 32 of which (which are the ones Drer saw) were acquired after the death of the original owner by Philip the Fair and only later handed over to Diego Flores, treasurer to his sister Margaret. Flores also knew Drer. On this important and recent discovery, see Zalama 2006. 96. Eichberger 2005. 97. Anders 2001, p. 3, above all, Feest 1990, pp. 33-36. 98. Torre Villar 1956-1957. 99. Dacos 1969. Through his friendship with Pirckheimer, Drer was familiar with Pietro Savorgnano who translated Hernan Cortss letters to Charles V. For his own ideas of urban planning Drer kept in mind the view of Tenochtitlan which accompanied this translation. The view is a print on fibre support that is nothing less than the first representation of a South American city ever published in Europe. See Gonzlez Garca 2000. 100. Goris 1925, passim. 101. Themudo Barata de Azevedo 1990. 102. Leuker 2001, pp. 51-52. 103. Schmidt 2005, esp. p. 49. 104. Oberhuber 1985. 105. Mulazzani 1986. 106. Sandrart 1683, pp. 124 and 211. 107. Vasari 2002, p. 534. 108. Kaplan 1974. 109. Drer received the drawing in 1515, noting this in his own hand. See Nesselrath 1993. 110. Quednau 1983. 111. Roskill 2000, pp. 120-121. 112. New York 2002, p. 230. 113. This drawing was used by Lampsonius for his collection. On Lucas van Leyden, Drer noted in his diary: Master Lucas, engraver on copper, has invited me. He is a very small man born in Leyden in Holland. Drer indeed depicted Van Leyden as fragile and delicate, worn down at the age of 27 by the tuberculosis that would lead to his death in 1533. 114. See Mander 2000, pp. 139-140. 115. Ibid., pp. 147-148. See also Vos 1978. 116. See Silver / Smith 1978. 117. Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, pp. 109-114. 118. Nuremberg 1991, esp. pp. 7-50. 119. Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1, p. 77. 120. Mende 1977.
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313ENSAYOS

[ cat. 3.9 ] Alberto Du re ro Jess entre los doctores, 1506

Apelles Vagabundus Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Winzinger 1972. Borchert 200la.

Apelles Vagabundus Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Apelles Vagabundus Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Apelles Vagabundus Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Apelles Vagabundus Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Apelles Vagabundus Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Apelles Vagabundus Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Apelles Vagabundus Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Apelles Vagabundus Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca

El relato termina en la Vida de Van Leyden, aunque en un tono algo ms tentativo:

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Apelles Vagabundus Juan Luis Gonzlez Garca

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

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53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59.

Durero y Cranach. Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento

76. 77. 78.

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