Week Six: Post #6 (16th Century Art in Northern Europe)

Albrect Dürer represents the Northern Renaissance and a major change in the school of thought and the way that paintings in the north were produced, after his paintings. He was one of the first artists to really harness the power of the printing press and is known for his wood block prints some of which are great examples of the way he was influenced by his trip to Italy. A great example of this would be Adam and Eve. He was also considered to be one of the first graphic artists as well as one of the first artists to brand himself with a logo. His logo, an upper case A, over and housing an upper case D for Albrect Dürer essentially created a brand. Albrect Dürer was a prolific painter who took important aspects from the earlier school of northern European traditions and blended them with techniques of the Italian Renaissance. 

 The piece that I have chosen to represent Albrect Dürer’s shift in style and technique I have chosen is The Suicide of Lucrezia painted in 1518. This painting depicts a female figure apparently Lucrezia who is nude covered only by some type of cloth sash and is committing suicide with a long knife or sword. The background is extremely dark and ominous perhaps setting a graven mood. While the foreground of the image is very light, there seems to be a very strong light source coming from out of the panel on the viewers left.

First off the figure is nude. This fact is a great example of his Italian influence this was not a Northern way of depicting a figure especially a female. This picture seems to be very humanist and shows a strong interest in the human figure as a subject that is worthy of high artistic attention and admiration. In my opinion the figure appears to be very bottom heavy and could be influenced by the Italian style of elongating and exaggerating the figure. There is a definite strong reference to the human figure as something to be idealized. The figure is also standing in a contrapposto pose and the composition is shaded very dark to light using the chiaroscuro technique which is a technique of the high Italian Renaissance. There is also some subtle attempt at foreshortening in the hand holding the sword and some of the fabric that is draped around the composition.

As far as the continuation of Northern traditions there appears to be symbolism in the subject matter itself and perhaps in the way the face is portrayed almost child like on the woman’s body. The interest in naturalism is seen in the way that the light is cast on the subject and the elements of the room. There also seems to be a continuation in extreme attention to detail in the shading, the floor, the perspective of the bed and background images. Albrect Dürer is a wonderful example of someone who furthered art in the North by applying things he had seen and learned from the Italians while continuing in the great traditions of the North with amazing attention to detail, naturalism and the use of iconography and symbolism.