New Drawings by Drer Author(s): Anton Reichel Source: Parnassus, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Jan., 1934), p.

15 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/770770 Accessed: 06/10/2009 00:52
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15

NEW DRAWINGS BY DURER

By ANTON REICHEL Albertin,a Museum, Vienna

HE finding of new drawings by The fifth drawing shows two exceedAlbrecht Diirer is always an event ingly delicately and firmly painted wo' which excites interest far beyond the men's hands. They are the studies for ' circle of the specialist, and this is parthe hands of the Madonna for the enticularly true in the present instance. graving The Virgin with the child in The recent excitement over the newly , swaddling clothes in 1520. discovered collection of drawings by Whereas the drawings discussed so Diirer in the Lubomirski Museum in far must be regarded as studies of the Lemberg (first mentioned in the Burbest known and most famous works of lington Magazine, March, 1927) had ; . r Diirer, it is not possible to find a definhardly died down, before a series of ite relation to any of Diirer's works in seven drawings of excellent quality, by the last two drawings. The one study Diirer, from an unknown private posrepresents ardently clasped hands, which session came into the market. A. Stix, may belong to a holy Mary under the the energetic director of the Albertina i cross, while the other one represents a in Vienna, was able to acquire them for ' ;;:: his institution and greatly increased .; drapery-study similar to that Diirer has '.r drawn sev.eral times. the thereby representative possessions A charcoal drawin7 of the hands of of the Albertina. These new studies of hands, derived * .\ 1 1 11 Emtperor Maximilian all The new drawings nearly from every phase in Diirer's life torepre- granate nade for t heenclosingportiesent studies of hands. The earliest, and gether with the other known studies, also the most impressive study, is a penshow us clearly the significance which he allotted to the human hand. He was one of the first drawing, brown and black on faded paper. The left hand is represented in three different positions, doubtless the to study and feel its individual life. artist's own hand, known already from some other drawings The richest collections of Diirer's drawings are those of the Albertina in Vienna, the Royal Print Cabinet in Berlin, by Diirer in Erlangen and Lemberg. The faithfulness with which Diirer pursues every little vein and wrinkle, as well and the Print Room at the British Museum. Other imas the desire to build the entire form from a multitude of portant drawings, however, are to be found at Bremen, single observations, indicate that while we have to do with Hamburg, Florence, Milan, the Louvre, Windsor Castle, a work of late Gothic art, at the same time we have to do Chatsworth, the Basius Collection at Brunswick, and the with the creation of an artist who is still at the beginning Bonnat Collection in Paris. Reproductions of nearly all of his development. These considerations as well as the the drawings have been published by Lippman, Zeichnungen von Albrecht Diirer, with the exception of the Albertina comparison with the drawing at Erlangen put our drawing in the category of the well-known Self-Portrait of 1493 in drawings which have appeared in Schonbrunner and the Louvre in which the artist represented himself with a Meder's Handzechnungen aus der Albertina und anderer flower in his hand-here the right hand. Two further Sammlungen. . . ... ................... delicate on blue Venetian drawings paper, in clair-obscure technic, carried out with a brush, are studies of the hands of Saint Dominic and of the Madonna for the Rosenkranzfest painted in 15o6. The relation of the artist to nature has changed significantly. Contrary to the drawing mentioned above and in the spirit of the Renaissance, Diirer is here master of the formal composition and conceives it as an entity. The same is true for the following sheet-a charcoal drawing for the hand of the Emperor Maximilian enclosing a pomegranate, on grey and white paper. An old and standard work, which the Albertina possesses, is the famous study of the emperor Diirer had drawn in Augsberg in the year 1518, some months before Maximilian's death. Later on, this drawing served Diirer as a model for the woodcut portrait and for the portrait itself. The picture of the emperor was painted by Diirer in two settings which are not quite identical. The one belongs to the KunstStudies for the hand of the Madonna historischen Museum in Vienna, the other, holding a crown, and the hand of Saint to which the newly acquired hand study Studies of the left hand probably made Diirer's Dominic for famous paintis in Niirnberg. belongs, Durer's ow;n hand in 1506 representing ing of the "Rosenkranzfest"
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