DÜRER ON SUNDAY

Art Sunday today finds me rather tired as we stayed in all day shifting bookcases, moving books, making room for some recent purchases and generally rationalising space. When one buys books and does not bear to part with them once one has read them, the problem of space becomes ever more acute and pressing. We bought two new bookcases yesterday and then we had to find room for them. Once they were in place, we had to move books so that they were where we wanted them to be. Alphabetical by language and author for fiction, and by subject for non-fiction. A mammoth task when one considers that we have several thousands of books.

Therefore, my offering today is a single work by Albrecht Dürer. Dürer was born May 21, in 1471, in the Imperial Free City of Nürnberg, Germany and died April 6, 1528, Nürnberg. He was a painter, printmaker, draughtsman and art theorist, generally regarded as the greatest German Renaissance artist. His vast body of work includes altarpieces and religious works, numerous portraits and self-portraits, and copper engravings. His woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse series (1498), retain a more Gothic flavour than the rest of his work.

The work I give you toady is a favourite of mine, “The Large Turf” (1503, watercolour and gouache on paper. Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, Austria, 41 cm x 32 cm). In this deceptively simple watercolour, Dürer creates a microcosm that is beautiful to behold and relaxing to meditate upon. One has to immerse oneself in this work and let the green serenity wash over one’s soul. To see this masterpiece with one's own eyes in Vienna is an amazing experience...