The World Within Durer’s Renaissance

Unusual and interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the Durer’s relationship with the world outside of Europe.

Jago Cooper, Director of Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, set the scene by looking at how Durer embraced new technology and ideas. He talked about how he exchanged ideas and gained knowledge leading to the print of the Rhinoceros based on first-hand accounts of them when he developed into an image of an animal he hadn’t actually seen.

He moved on to look at the effect of seeing treasures from the America’s on display in the Netherlands in Durer and his descriptions of them. He did acknowledge that this wasn’t reflected in his art as it didn’t necessarily fit the religious art he was commissioned to paint.

We then moved on the to art produced when the Europeans met the indigenous people in the Americas focusing on research he had done on Isla de Mona. This was fascinating. I loved the images of the galleons arriving and found very personal religious art of the Europeans very moving.

I must admit however I didn’t see the link to Durer other than that it was taking place at the same time. Durer did meet people who had been to the Americas and seemed excited to learn about what they had seen as well as talking to radical European thinkers like Erasmus. It was another sign of his eclectic mind.

 

 

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