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It was through his printmaking that Dürer's skill as a draftsman gained international recognition. He worked in engraving, etching, and the form used here, woodcut. Heraldic designs, in this case the coat of arms of the Behaim family, were a major type of commission. This print, perhaps a bookplate, was made for Michael Behaim, a Nuremberg patrician whose name appears on a legal document as witness to Dürer's purchase of a garden in 1512. The Morgan is fortunate also to have in its collection the woodblock used to make this print.
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At one-eighth the height of the entire body, the head is the key to ideal classical proportion. Dürer first drew this head on the verso over a grid pattern, faintly visible through the sheet, and then traced it on the recto to ensure geometric precision. Such schematic delineations correspond to the theories of Vitruvius, the first-century B.C. Roman architect who related the ratio of buildings to those of the human body in his treatise On Architecture.
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Dürer gained international reputation as a draftsman yet also participated in the renowned metalwork tradition of his native Nuremberg. His father and brothers were goldsmiths, and Nuremberg was, along with Augsburg, a center of armor production during Dürer's lifetime. This design for a saddle decoration—perhaps a pommel plate or seat—was probably made for Dürer's principal patron, Emperor Maximilian I.
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While consistently fascinated with the definition of beauty offered by classical models—the composition of this drawing may have its origins in Roman art and mythology—Dürer also embraced the indigenous German aesthetic. Although definitive identification of the subject of this drawing remains elusive, the male figure resembles the Wild Man, a folk character with a long tradition in German art. The drawing is distinguished by rough, parallel lines, which may relate to its use as a model for one of Dürer's six known etchings. At the time, etching was a new medium in northern Europe.
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Dürer mined theoretical and mathematical sources for his work, but he also relied on empirical study of the world around him. To his friend and Reformation leader Philipp Melanchthon, he wrote, "As I grew older, I realized that it was much better to insist on the genuine forms of nature, for simplicity is the greatest adornment of art." This drawing depicts the artist's brother Endres, a goldsmith who probably executed Dürer's designs for metalwork. Using charcoal alone, Dürer achieved a range of textures—from the dense pile of the fur collar to the wisps of curly hair.
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Dürer produced dozens of manuscripts on the subject of proportion. Through the efforts of his wife, Agnes, and friend Willibald Pirckheimer, these treatises were published posthumously as Four Books on Human Proportion. The treatise attests to Dürer's changing attitude toward the body over time.
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As he advocated in the Four Books on Human Proportion, Dürer united a variety of sources in this watercolor design for a wall in the town hall of Nuremberg. Between arched windows, roundels depict the Old Testament stories of David and Bathsheba and Samson and Delilah, as well as the classical legend of Aristotle and Phyllis. Collectively, they share a popular contemporary theme: the power of women. Surrounding the vignettes is decorative foliage inhabited by pagan satyrs and the Christian motif of the pelican.
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Melencolia I is arguably the most famous and enigmatic print in the history of art. Melancholy, represented in the engraving as a woman, gained a positive interpretation thanks to such Italian Renaissance theorists as Marsilio Ficino, who linked it to artistic genius. Her imbalance of humors evident from her dejected demeanor, Melancholy appears to doubt the usefulness of mathematics in creating art.
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With this print, Dürer catapulted to international prominence and became the foremost printmaker in Europe. Having been introduced to the canon of proportions—a mathematical system designed to depict the ideal human body—by Jacopo de' Barbari, an Italian artist visiting Nuremberg in 1500, Dürer used the technique to create Adam and Eve. He paired their flawless physiques with an emphasis on perfect temperament.
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Dürer achieved the classically proportioned figures of the Adam and Eve print through a significant amount of preliminary effort. This sheet shows the complexity of his preparatory trials. He joined two pieces of paper, a figure on each, and added a third vertical strip down the middle to create the appropriate distance between them. He then applied brown wash to unify the entire composition. Of the many drawings produced in connection with the print, this work is the only one to include both the male and female figures.
