Head of a walrus

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Head of a walrus (Albrecht Dürer)
Head of a walrus
Albrecht Dürer , 1521
Pen, brown ink and watercolor
21.1 x 31.2 cm
British Museum, London

Head of a walrus is a drawing by Albrecht Dürer from the year 1521. In Dürer's catalog raisonné the picture bears the number W. (= Winkler) 823.

description

The pen drawing was done in brown ink and watercolored. It shows a slightly raised walrus head turned to the left with a stringy or spiny beard on the upper and lower jaw and a wrinkled and unusually slender neck. The animal's mouth is slightly open, revealing some teeth in the lower jaw that look like molars. His eye is unnaturally large and has an eyebrow that is structured similarly to the beard.

That dosig thyr ...

Dürer gave the picture a description. It is located to the left of the walrus head and reads: "The dose of thyr van that I do the hawbt conterfett has been caught in the niderlendischen sea and what XII ellen long traditionally with for feet". The drawing is dated 1521.

Dürer's size specification for the animal is greatly exaggerated. Twelve Brabant cubits would be about 8.30 meters in length, whereas adult males can grow to be about 3.60 meters. His expression “dosig” is not to be read as “dozing”, which would not agree with the expression of the depicted walrus head either, but as “dasig”, an adjective to “da”. However, it is not entirely clear to which place - if not only the sheet of paper is meant - this information refers. Possibly Dürer got to see the animal in a stuffed state in a cabinet of curiosities.

Dürer's journey to the Dutch sea

Dürer's trip to the Netherlands took place from July 15, 1520 to the summer of 1521. Accompanied by his wife Agnes and the servant Susanna, he set out after the death of Maximilian I to have his successor Charles V confirm the continued existence of a privilege that Maximilian had once granted him: the emperor had 100 Rhenish guilders Have artists paid out annually by the City Council of Nuremberg . Dürer, who had been assured of the continued existence of this privilege on November 12, 1520 in Cologne , also used the trip to visit the Netherlands for a longer period. At the end of November 1520 he was in Antwerp when he learned that a huge whale had stranded in Zierikzee . He noted in his travel diary that the animal was over a hundred fathoms long, which was also a clear exaggeration, and that the residents of Zeeland were of the opinion that it would take six months before the carcass would be chopped up and the oil boiled from it.

On December 3, 1520, Dürer set out to inspect this whale. Meanwhile, he left his wife in Antwerp. On the way he visited all sorts of attractions that were on the route. He first traveled to Bergen op Zoom , where he was particularly impressed by the palace of Mr. von Bergen, later the Markiezenhof, and where he made several drawings. On December 7th, he traveled with his companions Sebastian and Alexander Imhoff, Georg Kötzler and Bernhart from Reesen to Goes on the island of Walcheren and from there to Arnemuiden . There the artist was in great danger. Because there was a great crush when getting out of the ship, Dürer had held back and was one of the last passengers on board when suddenly the stop rope tore and the vehicle was driven out to sea by an upcoming storm. Dürer reported in his travel diary that nobody reacted appropriately to the cries for help, the ship's master, alone with Dürer, Kötzler, two old women and a little boy on board, panicked and only came up with the idea at Dürer's encouragement to be able to bring the ship back in the right direction with a small sail. The rescue operation succeeded and Dürer was able to travel on to Middelburg . This city impressed him very much, but apparently no drawings of this travel station have survived. The onward journey led to Veere , where there was a ferry connection to Zierikzee. On December 9th, Dürer used this connection and, having arrived at the destination of his journey, discovered that the whale had meanwhile been washed back into the sea. Dürer traveled back to Antwerp via Bergen op Zoom, where he arrived on December 14, 1520.

Although the journey had not led to the desired destination, Dürer had made numerous drawings on the trip to Zierikzee. These included not only the views from Bergen op Zoom (W. 768 and W. 772), on which the unfinished Church of St. Gertrudis von Rombout Kelderman the Younger can be seen, but also the portrait of a girl in costume (W. . 770), the portrait of his landlord Jan de Haas in Bergen op Zoom with the portraits of several family members (W. 771), the portrait of the landlord in Arnemuiden and the portrait of Marx Ulstat (W. 773), which Dürer made at sea . There is also a portrait of a woman on the sheet, which was added later. Marx Ulstat could have been a relative of the doctor and alchemist Philipp Ulstat . Dürer made further portraits on the way of Bernhart von Reesen, von Kötzler, of the French from Cambrai and of a Mr. Kerpen from Cologne, probably Bernhard von Kerpen . Dürer also cited the portrait of a jeweler and a "snap cock" in his notes. The head of a walrus is bringing its label facing Although geographically with this journey into context, however, is not mentioned in Dürer's travel diary about the trip to the Dutch lake and so obviously emerged loud dating only later.

Early illustrations and descriptions of walruses

According to Alfred Brehm , in the same year that Dürer made his trip to Zierikzee, a bishop of Drontheim “had the head of a walrus salted and sent it [...] to Pope Leo X in Rome . This head was depicted in Strasbourg, and old Gessner gave a fairly correct description of it. ”Brehm commented quite disparagingly on earlier illustrations and descriptions of walruses:“ The old pictures [...] are either the offspring of a more than vivid one Imagination or pathetic depictions of parched hides. Those were evidently only drawn from hearsay, and the artists had wonderful monsters in mind, such as how they produced a time in which hell, devils and other freaks of superstition found vivid expression on buildings and pictures. Some of these illustrations are [...] truly delightful products of the time, strong in faith, and even the illustrations, apparently drawn after dried hides, [...] hardly allow an idea of ​​the animal concerned. ”Brehm does not expressly comment on Dürer's drawing.

The dragon with the walrus head

Dürer continued to use the walrus head one year after the drawing was made. In his work Enthroned Mary with Child, Eight Saints and Angels Making Music (W. 855), he placed the head of a walrus on a saint's dragon in 1522.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Winkler : The drawings of Albrecht Dürer . 4 volumes. Volume I: 1484–1502 / Volume II: 1503–1510 / 11 / Volume III: 1510–1520 / Volume IV: 1520–1528, German Association for Art Research, Berlin. Annual edition 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939. Here: Volume IV
  2. ↑ Gerd Unverfetern, I saw many delicious things. Albrecht Dürer's trip to the Netherlands , Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-47010-7 , p. 129
  3. ↑ Unverfetern 2007, p. 15
  4. ↑ Unverfetern 2007, p. 119
  5. ↑ Unverfetern 2007, p. 120
  6. ↑ Unverfetern 2007, p. 124
  7. ↑ Unverfetern 2007, p. 126
  8. ↑ Unverfetern 2007, p. 128
  9. ↑ Unverfetern 2007, p. 129
  10. ↑ This is probably Johannes Gessner , who was only active in the 18th century.
  11. ↑ Brehm's Thierleben
  12. ↑ Brehm's Thierleben
  13. ↑ The name Katharina is undamaged, but the dragon is actually the attribute of Margaret of Antioch .
  14. ↑ Unverfetern 2007, p. 129