The young Durer: drawing the figure in context study day
It began with a
fascinating talk by the curator Stephanie Buck, explaining why the exhibition
was hung the way it was and why she felt that Durer’s travelling years were so
important.
Next was Kate
Heard , Curator of Prints and Drawings at The Royal Collection, looking at why
Durer returned to drawing the Virgin and Child so often even though these were
not works for sale at the time and whether this altered with the coming of the
Reformation.
After lunch Mark
Evans , Senior Curator of Paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum, talked
about the relationship and cross fertilisation of ideas between Italy and
Germany in this period. It seemed to be taken that we all knew the arguments
for whether Durer himself had gone to Italy before 1506 but I had assumed this
was the subject of the talk and would have liked a bit more about it.
Next was Giuliani
Bartrum , Assistant a Keeper, Department of Prints and Drawings, British
Museum, who gave a fascinating talk on Durer’s prints and why he became so
famous for them and was described by Erasmus as “the Apelles of the black
line.” Unfortunately she did go over her time quite a bit which meant the last
speaker, Christian Weikop of the University of Edinburgh, had to cut his talk
on the legacy of Durer a bit short. It was really interesting to hear how
artistic movements particularly of the 20th century had used Durer as a symbol
of the German nation.
All in all a very
stimulating day!
Comments