the art of albrecht durer

 

When you think of great artists of the Renaissance, who comes to mind? Perhaps Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael? Donatello, Caravaggio, or Bellini? My guess is that a German artist known mostly for his woodcuts is not the first to pop into your head, but Albrecht Durer is undoubtedly one of the greatest artists of the late Renaissance.

Durer was born in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1471. This was a time of great change and discovery in Europe. Renaissance means “new birth,” and that’s truly what this time was. It seems like world-changing events were taking place nearly every year. Martin Luther was born in 1483, Columbus discovered the New World in 1492, and perhaps most notable for young Albrecht, Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440.

Durer’s father was a goldsmith, and his godfather was a printer and publisher. One of his godfather’s publications, the Nuremberg Chronicle, used hundreds of woodcuts to portray the history of the world, some of which young Albrecht may have worked on. His first significant work to be published was a woodcut which served as the title page for a volume of St. Jerome’s Letters in August of 1492.

The zeitgeist into which Durer was born was one of advancement as well as apocalypse. Religious and political change was on the horizon. The plague had continued to afflict the continent. Out of 18 children, Albrecht was only one of three who survived into adulthood. With the year 1500 approaching, a sense of fear and dread began to seize the masses. Durer felt this as well, and in 1498 he published the volume Apocalypse, a series of fifteen woodcuts portraying scenes from the book of Revelation. The most famous of these being The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and St Michael Fighting the Dragon. 

Another work with an end-times theme, Knight, Death, and the Devil, came about as the first of his series Meistertiche (or master prints). A knight rides confidently through a narrow valley surrounded by a demon and a figure of death riding a pale horse. Up above, a mighty fortress perched on a hilltop beckons the rider to endure and persevere through all the evils of this world to finally reach the eternal kingdom of God. It’s Durer’s medieval take on the line from Psalm 23, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”  

Durer seemed to be quite interested in Martin Luther and the Reformation. He mentioned Luther several times in his writings, and he appears to have received a copy of Luther’s Babylonian Captivity of the Church in 1520. He also wrote of his desire to draw Luther in his diary from 1520: “God help me that I may go to Dr. Martin Luther as I intend to make a portrait of him with great care and engrave him on a copper plate to create a lasting memorial of the Christian who helped me overcome so many difficulties.” 

Durer died in August of 1528 at the age of 56. His monogram, a stylized AD, was a sign of his initials and a symbol of the Latin phrase “Anno Domini,” the year of our Lord. It is now a lasting memorial of the immense talent of this incredible artist and the God of all grace who inspired his work.  

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remembering rembrandt

 

The first Rembrandt I ever saw was an original. 

The year was 1978. I was nine years old at the time, and living with my family in Germany. On a weekend trip to Amsterdam, we walked into an art museum and there it was - big, bright, and beautiful. I didn't know anything about it, but couldn't seem to take my eyes off of the grand scene before me. The valiant figures on the canvas looked like they might walk right out into the gallery and start talking to me. I was transported to another place and time, enveloped into the shadowy world of a 17th-century Dutch militia. Later on I learned that what I was looking at was a Rembrandt masterpiece, The Night Watch, one of the most famous paintings in the world.

That experience stuck with me through the years, so I was dismayed to hear that in 1990, thieves broke into a museum in Boston and stole $500 million worth of classic artwork, including paintings by Rembrandt, Degas, and Manet. It's considered the largest art theft in US history and remains unsolved to this day. The museum still displays the paintings' empty frames in their original locations. 

That describes much of Rembrandt's life - an empty frame. Rembrandt's first three children died as infants. His first wife then died, so he married again and had two more children. He eventually outlived them all and ended up burying all 7 members of his immediate family. Though considered one of the greatest artists of all time, Rembrandt had a difficult life, died penniless, and was buried in a pauper's grave. 

Rembrandt’s mother was Catholic and his father was Dutch Reformed. He attended his father’s church as a child, and though never formally becoming a member, he never seems to have lost his childhood faith. He continued to return to spiritual themes in his painting and etchings, especially in the wake of life's trials and tragedies. Some of his greatest biblical and religious works in the 1630's came about in the midst of great struggle, heartache, pain, and loss. This culminated with his poignant Return of the Prodigal Son, finished the year of his death, 1669.

Rembrandt had a great effect on many artists that came later, including Vincent van Gogh. On a number of occasions, van Gogh found himself in the midst of his own trials. In 1889, he was isolated and alone, locked up in a mental ward in France. He was anxious, irritable, deeply troubled, and under attack from all the pitfalls and pressures of life. Then he received a letter from his brother, Theo. In this letter, his brother included an etching that had been done by Rembrandt 200 some years before. As van Gogh looked at the etching by Rembrandt, he felt as though he had been raised from death to life. The etching by Rembrandt was entitled The Raising of Lazarus. 

He was so moved that he decided to do his own painting of the raising of Lazarus. In his version, van Gogh put to canvas what he could not put into words, and painted his own face as the face of Lazarus rising from the grave. 

Vincent van Gogh would later go on to say that, "Rembrandt goes so deep into the mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language." 

Here’s how the Apostle Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom 8:26).

Rembrandt's paintings can help point us to something outside of ourselves, something greater and grander than the pain and suffering we may be experiencing in this world. That something is the gospel of Christ: the biggest and brightest and most beautiful thing ever conceived. It is a sight to behold, a true original, a work of art, a priceless possession, God's masterpiece, indeed.

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord”  (Rom 8:38, 39).

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