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Dinesh club

Posted: 07 May 2022

Taken: 07 May 2022

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Germany ~ A memories of a Nation •
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Knight, Death and the Devil by Albrecht Durer, 1513

Knight, Death and the Devil by Albrecht Durer, 1513
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 Dinesh
Dinesh club
Durer has always been especially admired for his engravings on copper: very difficult, precise painstaking work, and -- unlike wood-cuts -- carried out by the artist himself, working directly on the copper plate. Two of these engravings have long been regarded as supreme in execution and rich in meaning: the great allegorical figure of Melancholy, sitting surrounded by a range of objects and symbols; and the Knight riding bravely out on his horse, flanked by death and the Devil. Giulia Bartrum explains why they are so remarkable:

They have a similar degree of quiet astonishing technical accomplishment, and the subjects complement each other. We have the Knight riding through a rocky gorge with the Devil, his faithful dog running beside him. Behind the horse, on his right side, is Death. But he is brushing off Death. He is purposeful and active. The figure of Melancholy is slumped in a heavy draped costume. Her dog is sleep. She is surrounded by cold geometric objects and empty apocalyptic landscape fills the background. You sense that she is not oncontrol of her life, entirely consumed by th struggle to think and create. Either way, she is the complete opposite of the Knight, who rides purposefully forward, while she sits immobile. ~ Page 311
2 years ago.
 Dinesh
Dinesh club
Interpretations of the prints and their significance have echoed down the centuries, playing a unique role in the history of German identity, according to Horst Bredekamp:

“I think that one cannot find two other objects which is the nineteenth century so embodied the self-definition of the German soul, with the result we know. The Knight is in a setting which is extremely hostile, without any possibility of escape, without hope -- surrounded by the Devil and landscape resistant to everything he does. This Knight epitomized the self-definition of the German who, with an iron heart, follows his chosen path in spite of the times. So in this sense the Knight became the symbol of steadfastness, holding to his line, disregarding all enemies or barriers in his way. Melancholia is the opposite This was taken as a symbol of a German soul which can be defined as the alternative to the Enlightenment as represented by Descartes. Melancholia is the romantic alternative to French rationalism. Here it is not the machine of body and mind that is determinant, but the soul which is the energizing factor for both, mind and body. This was how the German soul was defined -- deeper and more complex than in any other nation. And that also implies elements of self-destruction, of disablement from action, of self-reflection, so to speak, of the German soul in the nineteenth century, which nowhere can be seen with such clarity -- I say that ironically -- as in these two pieces. ~ Page 314

Germany ~ Memories of a Nation
2 years ago. Edited 14 months ago.
 Dinesh
Dinesh club
Knights were known as ‘buzones’ or ‘big men’. They were approximately 1,100 or 1,200 in number. They are the men whose images are seen, in wood and stone, in the old churches of England. They wear body armour, and some of them are about to draw the sword; some carry shields; others are shown with their hands folded in prayer; they are often cross-legged; double images of husband and wife are sometimes preferred. This was the period when coats of arms were recorded, and the science of heraldry emerged in all its fancifulness. Early in the fourteenth century, knights burials were commemorated with full figure brasses. ~ Page 200

Foundation
14 months ago. Edited 14 months ago.

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