Dürer's reception in Antwerp
Dürer's reception in Antwerp by the painter Hermann Stilke was the third transparent painting at the Dürer Festival in Nuremberg in 1828.
Historical background
Albrecht Dürer traveled to the Netherlands in 1520/21 and visited the city of Antwerp five times during this time. His first stay dates from August 2nd to August 26th, 1520. Just three days after his arrival, on August 5th, 1520, the Dutch painters' guild prepared a reception for him in their guild house and Dürer describes this in his travel diary (which is more like an account book ), which appeared in 1956 in an annotated edition by Hans Rupprich , as follows.
“And on Sunday, what on Sanct Oswaldt day, then the mealers invited me to their room with my wife and maid, and had all things with silver sheared and other delicious dishes and delicious food. Her wives were all there too. And when I was brought to table, the people stood on their feet, as if one were leading a great man. Among them, too, there were excellent people by name who, with deep naïves, raised themselves against me in the most humble manner. [...] And when I was worshiped by the sas, Herr von Antorff raths poth came with two servants and gave me four pots of wine from Herr von Antorff; and let me be told that I should hereby be adored by them and have their good will. "
The guild house was called "De Bontemantel" and was located on the Grote Markt near the Church of Our Lady in Antwerp, but no longer exists today. Dürer thus becomes part of a festive reception that is attended not only by painters but also by political actors. A councilor named Adriaen Herbouts is named, from whom Dürer receives four jugs of wine on behalf of the then mayor Arnold ("Antorff") van Liere. Dürer reports about the rest of the travel time (including Mechelen, Bruges, Ghent), and nowhere else about so much honor and enthusiasm that was bestowed upon him. The reception can be interpreted as the beginning of a memorial for Dürer in Antwerp, which is expressed not least in the offer of Dürer's permanent residence in the Netherlands, but also e.g. B. also in the following generation of Dutch painters. In 1563 the merchant and painter Cornelius van Dalem (1530 / 35–1573) built his house in the Lange Nieuwstraat with the name “Pictura”. The gable of his house was decorated with a bust of Minerva and an allegory of painting, the busts of Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer. The house was demolished in 1852, but the two busts have been preserved and can be seen today in the Antwerp Museum Het Vleeshuis. Dürer's bust bears the inscription: "GERMANORVM DECVS" - ornament of the Germans.
Transparent
At the Dürer Festival in Nuremberg in 1828, the banner “Dürer's reception in Antwerp” was hung in the third position in the chronological order of the illustrations. The German artist Hermann Stilke (1803–1860) provided the design for the banner. Initially, Stilke was also a student of Peter von Cornelius , but in this banner he already distanced himself from the strict classicist teachings and turned to a more detailed realism. Stilke will move to Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow in Düsseldorf in 1833 and thus not only carry out an artistic and biographical break with Cornelius. Stilke's work differs from the other banners mainly in the positivist approach of depicting a moment at the reception as precisely as possible and not placing the main focus on the art-theoretical convictions of the Nazarenes , their co-founders and others. a. Cornelius was.
The moment could be exactly the one that Dürer recorded in his travel diary, namely:
"Herr von Antorff raths poth came with two servants and presented me with four pots of wine from Herr von Antorff."
Surrounded by various people, Dürer is sitting at a blackboard in the foreground and directing his gaze to a group of three to his left. In the middle of this group stands a well-dressed man and solemnly lifts his hat or cap to the top left (“takes off his hat”). This person could be the councilor who, surrounded by his two assistants, looks at Dürer in greeting and makes the gesture. In front of him and at Dürer's feet, one of the assistants kneels on the floor, with a wine jug (possibly an amphora) surrounded by grapes on his neck and also on his head, looking up at Dürer. The second stands to the left behind the councilman and carries another wine vessel, like a hydra, on his head. Its head is also adorned with grapes and possibly ivy.
It seems as if Dürer wants to shake hands with the one kneeling in front of him or express a gesture of thanks. Due to its prominent position in the picture, the theme of a feast and especially the wine containers, this scene is iconographically interpreted as the wedding at Cana . Dürer, who, instead of Jesus, acts as a "miracle worker" and ensures that the rest of the party has more to drink with the wine gift. In terms of art history, the biblical passage from Joh 2, 1-12 was most prominently painted by the Italian painter Paolo Veronese in 1563 (Paolo Veronese, The Wedding at Cana, 1563, oil on canvas, 677 × 994 cm, Paris, Louvre).
The iconographic interpretation of Stilke's contribution to the Dürer Festival is consolidated above all in Dürer's general religious and mystical staging within the cycle of banners and the entire Dürer Festival. A contemporary contribution by (possibly) Methuselah Müller in the Kunstblatt 1828 describes the darkened town hall in Nuremberg and the staging of the banners.
“On the west side was the orchestra, the east side, which, as is well known, has painted church windows, was disguised by a large niche in the form of an upstairs church to which steps led up. In this choir and on the broad front walls of it were the seven banners, set up like windows. Pointed arches with Gothic decorations contained three small transparent portraits above each picture and, decorated by Gothic architecture, reached into the sky vault of the niche, which was decorated with gold stars. The space between the pictures was filled with geniuses who indicated Dürer's skills in individual branches of art on a panel. An inscription marked the fabric under each picture. "
Set in a Gothic pseudo-architecture and atmospherically illuminated so that the (exactly) seven banners "appear" like church windows, the starry sky on the ceiling and the other picture themes, Dürer stage the festivities as a Christian savior of art and above all, of German art (see Nazarenes ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Georg-August-Universität Göttingen- Public Relations: April 12th, 2015 - Etchings on Dürer by Johann Philipp Walther (1798 to 1868) - Christine Hübner, Dipl. Kulturwirtin - Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Retrieved March 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Hans Rupprich (Ed.): Dürer's written estate . tape 1 .. German Association for Art History, Berlin 1956.
- ↑ a b Gerd Unverfetern: I saw many delicious things there, Dürer's trip to the Netherlands . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-47010-7 .
- ↑ a b c Matthias Mende: The banners of the Nuremberg Dürer celebration of 1828, A contribution to the Dürer adoration of Romanticism. Ed .: Erich Steingräber, Peter Bloch. Nuremberg 1969.
- ^ Art paper 1828
- ↑ Morning paper for educated stands / art paper. Dr. Ludwig Schorn, 1828, accessed January 25, 2020 .