Art Eyewitness Book Review: Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer

 By Christof Metzger and Julia Zaunbauer

Prestel/488 pages/$75

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor and Europe's leading art collector, ordered his agents to purchase one of the greatest paintings in Italy, Feast of the Rose Garlands, and bring it to his palace in Prague. The large oil on wood painting, measuring 5.3 ft x 6.3 ft., was duly transported - at one point, hand-carried along a footpath across the Alps - to Prague Castle. 

The year was 1606. Rudolf's prize acquisition was not a contemporary work by Caravaggio nor a classic painting from the studio of a High Renaissance master like Raphael. Indeed, Feast of the Rose Garlands, had not been painted by an Italian at all. It was the masterpiece of the greatest of German artists, Albrecht Dürer.

Albrecht Dürer, The Feast of the Rose Garlands, 1506 

Rudolf was obsessed with Dürer's art. The emperor, who was slightly mad to begin with, spared no expense to purchase Dürer's works of art. In 1588, he had spent a princely sum to buy a large bound volume known as the Kunstbuch, which contained 100 original drawings and watercolors by Dürer. The nature study, The Great Piece of Turf (1503), was just one of the works of Dürer's genius which were carefully preserved in the Kunstbuch. 

No art book today - or ever - can match the Kunstbuch. However, Albrecht Dürer, the catalog of the recent exhibition at the Albertina Museum in Vienna, comes close. 

Published by Prestel, Albrecht Dürer surveys the Renaissance artist's entire career. The quality of the illustrations makes descriptive words like "lavish" or "magnificent" seem trite. The scholarship which informs the accompanying essays by Christof Metzger and Julia Zaunbauer is of the highest quality, as well. This, truly, is an outstanding book about one of the greatest artists in European - and world - history. 
                                  .
The Albrecht Dürer catalog essays, which include an excellent short biography, establish the salient features of Dürer the artist: "skill" and "versatility."  

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) succeeded not by virtue of raw talent - though he had plenty - but by study, experiment, application and discipline. His first work, a self-portrait drawn in silverpoint "when I was still a child" (as he noted on the sheet), was an audacious achievement. But the level of drawing testifies to the rigorous training he received from his father, a master goldsmith and a superb draftsman in his own right.

Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait at Thirteen, 1484

Dürer's skill extended to many artistic media: drawing, painting, etching and woodcarving. This last is a somewhat contentious point but important to consider from the standpoint of Dürer's versatility. Most of the woodcuts for Dürer's marvelous prints were created by master carvers based on his designs. But enough indications remain to show that Dürer was adept at this patient, meticulous form of artistry. 

Such mastery of woodcarving would have informed Dürer's relationship with the professional carvers he employed. When Dürer handed the design of a picture to a woodcarver or formschneider like Hieronymus Andreä, he could do so, secure in the knowledge that both he and Andreä were "on the same page" to use a modern expression.  

This ability to both delegate and to task-manage points to another of Dürer's great achievements. He succeeded brilliantly in organizing and operating a successful workshop. In this, he can be compared to Verrocchio, whose studio in Florence was the training ground for Leonardo, Ghirlandaio and, most likely, Botticelli. 

Dürer is often called the "Leonardo of the North" because he wrote major books on aesthetics later in life. Unlike, Leonardo, Dürer had the drive to see the job in hand through to completion. Dürer's output was staggering and there was little unfinished work in his studio when he died in 1528.

                                                       Albrecht Dürer,                                                       Detail of The Rape of Europa, Three Studies of a Lion's Head,

 Apollo and an Oriental Figure, 1494/1495

Dürer sketched and drew with relentless enthusiasm. A single page in the Kunstbuch preserved a mythological scene, with a typical south German town in the background,  figure studies of Apollo and a Hamlet-like philosopher and three views of a tired old lion, who would appear and reappear in Dürer's many depictions of St. Jerome and his faithful feline friend.

Albrecht Dürer, St. Jerome in His Study, 1514

The Prestel volume displays a generous selection of Dürer's drawings, ranging from delightful doodles on letters to friends and sketches for later reference to supremely finished works. These were often done on carefully prepared colored paper, executed with watercolor and body color and brilliant touches of white for contrast. The celebrated Praying Hands (1503), masterfully demonstrates Dürer's drawing technique.

It should be noted that Dürer "drew" with a paint brush, as well as charcoal, pen and ink, and the pointed stylus for silverpoint, one of the most exacting and unforgiving artistic techniques imaginable, as noted in the 2015 exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. Graphite pencils had not yet been invented.

In their most accomplished state, Dürer's drawings must be considered as Exempla. While such an expertly executed drawing might serve as part of the preparatory stage for a painting, it was also a work of art in its own right. On a higher, even more profound level, Dürer's exempla were a means of communicating ideas and ideals, the very essence of Renaissance humanism. 

                                                      Albrecht Dürer,                                                          A Pastoral Landscape with Shepherds Playing a Viola & Panpipes, 1496/1497

One of Dürer's greatest friends was Willibald Pirckheimer (1470-1530), a pioneer of the "New Learning" in Germany. Dürer created a special illustration for Pirckheimer's copy of the first print edition of the classical Greek philosopher, Theocritus. Executed in watercolor and gouache heightened with pen and ink and gold, Durer's image of musician-shepherds surrounds the opening page of Theocritus' Idylls. Dürer drew this charming, one-of-a-kind illustration much as medieval artists created elaborate initials to mark the beginning of hand-copied prayer books and bibles. 

Although Pirckheimer's copy of Theocritus is a printed volume, its status is of supreme importance. It was printed in 1496 by Aldus Manutius in Venice. It was Manutius who established the first truly successful publishing company in Europe. The classical texts of the Aldine editions transformed scholarship because they were modestly priced and carefully edited. If one wanted to mark the moment when the Renaissance became a pan-European movement, Dürer's illustration for his friend's copy of Theocritus admirably performs that service.

Viewing Dürer's drawings as a totality, Cristof Metzger notes that Dürer's exempla "are ultimately conversation pieces, physical manifestations of the master's consummate artistic abilities whose purpose is to demonstrate this capacity to every visitor to the artists's workshop."

This is beautifully stated, but I would take it a stage-further. Dürer's drawings and prints are a means of dialogue between his time and our era - and those to come. And, when we look and reflect upon The Great Piece of Turf, we join with Dürer in a form of communication with the cosmic spirit, in short with God.

Albrecht Dürer, The Great Piece of Turf, 1503

Here, in this stunning depiction of a small plot of soil and plant life, we can feel and partake of the life force of the universe. A two-dimensional picture, 16 x 12 3/8 in., created half of millennium ago, takes us to dimensions of time and the spirit almost beyond our ability to grasp.

Dürer's drawings enable us to probe another realm of the infinite, namely the character of humanity. 

Albrecht Dürer, Head of an African, 1508

In a drawing dating to 1508, Dürer depicted the likeness of an African man of unknown origin. Dürer may have seen him in Venice during his recent trip or perhaps the man was a servant of an Imperial official visiting Nuremberg. We don't know the details, but we are given a higher degree of insight, straight into the heart and soul of this fellow human being, long dead and very much alive to us still.

Thanks to the exceptional quality of the illustrations of this Prestel book, viewing Dürer's art works on its pages is almost as rewarding as a visit to the Albertina Museum in Vienna!
If I have one criticism of this magnificent book, it is the abrupt, jarring manner in which the text comes to an abrupt halt. 

In the final section, "Dürer the Storyteller", Christof Metzger discusses a number of late works, pen and ink depictions of incidents in the life and death of Jesus. We read how these remarkable drawings were not "preliminary drawings for a specific work but rather experiments for the workshop stock."

We turn the page, expecting more, only to confront the book's section of notes. It struck me as quite a jolt to suddenly be deprived of Albrecht Dürer's company after page-upon-page of stunning illustrations and spirited, compelling commentary. This book is an exhibition catalog, rather than a formal biography, so this word of censure is undeserved.

All the same, it was with a real sense of loss, that I finished this wonderful book. Was this how Dürer's family, friends and colleagues felt when they received word that he had died on April 6, 1528? I suspect so.

Fortunately, a heartfelt valedictory of Dürer is available in Paul Johnson's Art: a New History (2003). Commenting on the large trove of Dürer's letters, travel diaries and other documents which have survived the centuries, Johnson notes how these personal writings:

 ... reveal the enthusiasm with which the boy, then the man, embraced a career in art; the assiduity with which he studied its techniques and absorbed any knowledge relevant to its practice; the humility with which, despite his obvious and overwhelming gifts, he approached art, and the generosity with which he helped others who shared his love of it.

"Dürer was the archetypal man of art," Johnson affirms. "He loved the world and nature, and sought to reduce it to orderly truth by his skill at putting real things and creatures in two dimensions."

Albrecht Dürer, Young Hare, 1502

In doing go, Dürer reached beyond tangible, visible reality to a higher level of creation. Here physical nature was infused with spirituality; transcendental themes took the shape of earthly creatures, birds, animals, human beings, which somehow - even now, five centuries after Dürer's death - do not seem out-of-place in heaven.

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Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                                                           
Images courtesy of the Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Book cover ©  Prestel Publishing Company

Introductory Image:
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) Praying Hands, 1508. Brush and gray wash heightened with white on blue prepared paper: 29.1 x 19.7 cm (11 1/2 x 7 3/4 in.), Albertina Museum, Vienna

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) The Feast of the Rose Garlands (Rosenkranzfest), 1506. Oil on panel:162 x 194.5 cm (64 x 76.5 inches or 5.3 ft x 6.3 ft.) National Gallery in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) Self-Portrait at Thirteen, 1484. Silverpoint on prepared paper, 27.3 x 19.5 cm (10 3/4 x 7 5/8 in.) Albertina Museum, Vienna 

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) The Rape of Europa, Three Studies of a Lion's Head, Apollo and an Oriental Figure (detail), 1494/1495. Pen and brown and black/brown ink. Albertina Museum, Vienna 

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528)  St. Jerome in His Study, 1514. Engraving on laid paper: 25.4 x 19 cm (10 x 7 1/2 in.). National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Gift of R. Horace Gallatin. 1949.1.11

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) A Pastoral Landscape with Shepherds Playing a Viola & Panpipes, 1496/1497. Watercolor and gouache heightened with pen and ink and gold, pasted back onto page 1 of Aldus Manutius' first edition of Theocritus' Idylls and other texts (Venice, 1496): page size: 31 x 20.3 cm (12 3/16 x 8 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Woodner Collection. 2005.1.1.a

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) The Great Piece of Turf, 1503. Watercolor, pen and ink: 40.3 cm × 31.1 cm (​15 7⁄8 in × ​12 1⁄4 in). Albertina Museum, Vienna

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) Head of an African, 1508. Black chalk: 31.8 x 21.7 cm (12 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.), Albertina Museum, Vienna 


Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) Young Hare, 1502. Watercolor and body color: 25.1 cm × 22.6 cm (9.9 in × 8.9 in). Albertina Museum, Vienna

Verrocchio Exhibition at the National Gallery, Washington D.C.

Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
September 15, 2019 - January 12, 2019

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original Phoitography by Anne Lloyd

What do you see when you examine a work of art by Leonardo da Vinci?

Is it a masterpiece by an "Artist as Hero"? This was the memorable description of Leonardo - and of Raphael and Michelangelo - by Kenneth Clark in the classic television series, Civilization.

Perhaps, wearied by all the current media-hype over the five hundred year anniversary of Leonardo's death in 1519, you are counting the days to 2020. 

If you have the opportunity to view Leonardo's early masterpiece Ginevra de' Benci  (1474/1478) in its current setting at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., you may change your opinions about Leonardo and Renaissance art.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibition, showing

Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci

The current setting for Ginevra de' Benci is a place of honor in an exhibition devoted to a different artist of Renaissance Italy. This not a 'back-handed" compliment to Leonardo since the protagonist of the National Gallery exhibit is Andrea del Verrocchio.

Verrocchio was the master of the studio in Florence where the young Leonardo was sent by his father, Ser Piero da Vinci, to learn the craft of art. Verrocchio, as the National Gallery exhibition shows, was a supremely gifted artist and a very efficient businessman. Leonardo worked in Verrocchio's study from 1466 to 1476. Indeed, he thrived to such an extent that the older artist's reputation withered under the shadow of Leonardo's legend.

Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence restores a sense of balance to the lives and creative works of Verrocchio and Leonardo. It shows that Verrocchio is such a major Renaissance artist that his career does not need - or deserve - to be appraised in terms of Leonardo's. A very good exhibit, last year at Yale, did exactly that.

Verrocchio at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. tells the whole story and it confirms that this neglected artist was one of the greatest Renaissance masters. Painting, sculpting, drawing and teaching - Verrocchio excelled in all of these pursuits. He was the best of all teachers for Leonardo - and other major Renaissance artists.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit showing

Verrocchio’s Putto with a Dolphin, c.1465/1480

Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488) was born in Florence just as the Renaissance gained impetus as a defining force in European affairs. Like many great artists, he trained as a goldsmith, then launched himself into painting and sculpting with impressive skill. 

Verrocchio, however, was very much a figure of the "springtime of the Renaissance." He was ready and able to work as a collaborative artist. The government and mercantile patrons of Florence during the early decades of the Renaissance expected the works of art they commissioned to be of the highest quality and delivered on time and within the budget. 

The best method for satisfying such patrons was an efficient workshop rather than the work ethic of a solitary "hero." That is exactly the kind of establishment which Verrocchio set up when he had gained sufficient means and reputation to do so.

Andrea del Verrocchio & assistants (Leonardo da Vinci & Pietro Perugino)

Madonna and Child with Two Angels, c.1470/1474

In the paintings produced by Verrocchio's workshop, the division of labor is often very clear. The hands of Verrocchio's assistants, Leonardo and Pietro Perugino, are detected in Madonna and Christ with Two Angels (c.1470-1474) on loan from the National Gallery  in London. After close inspection and repeated changes in opinion, the lily-holding angel on the left is attributed to Leonardo, while Perugino, the teacher of Raphael, is credited with the angel on the right.

Exactly what year Verrocchio founded his studio has not been established. Very little is known about Verrocchio's youth. Most of his early oeuvre, in metal work especially, has not survived. However, a small covered vase, likely used to hold saintly relics, is of interest in regard to his rise in the Florentine art community. Though attributed to Verrocchio later in his career, it is likely to be the kind of exquisite object d'art that would have caught the eye of would-be patrons as he made a name for himself as a professional artist.

Andrea del Verrocchio (attributed) Small Vase with Cover, c. 1480/1485

The delicate silver-gilt settings on this agate vase are worked with motifs  that can securely be traced to Verrocchio. Curator Andrew Butterfield is confident that this is a work by him. Butterfield also notes that the vase is inscribed "LAV. R. MED." This means that it was owned by Lorenzo de' Medici, "Il Magnifico."

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

Portrait Bust of Lorenzo de' Medici, ca.1513/1520,

Lorenzo the Magnificent (1444-1492) thought so highly of Verrocchio's skill that he commissioned numerous works. This grim-faced portrait, however, had different patrons and an unusual history, brilliantly investigated by Andrew Butterfield, the chief curator of the National Gallery exhibition. 

In 1478, Medici supporters commissioned a wax statue of Lorenzo, celebrating his survival in the assassination attempt known as the Pazzi Conspiracy. Butterfield maintains that Verrocchio made or assisted with the wax statue, now lost. This work later served as the source for an extremely lifelike terracotta bust of Lorenzo, made about 1513.

Verroccio sculpted another statue of a Medici-family member which has survived: a terracotta portrait of Lorenzo's brother, Guiliano, the "golden youth" of Florence. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) 

                   Andrea del Verrocchio’s Giuliano de' Medici, c. 1475/1478

Wearing lavishly-decorated jousting armor, Guiliano beams a victorious smile. In 1475, he wore this or similar armor in a tournament which he won. Three years later, he was murdered, stabbed nineteen times while attending Sunday religious services. The Pazzi conspirators, who tried and failed to kill Lorenzo, were the perpetrators and they paid a fearful price for their deed.

The portrait busts of Lorenzo and Guiliano share an exhibition gallery with with one of Verrocchio's greatest works, the bronze statue, David with the Head of Goliath, dating to around 1465. Verrocchio's David, along with the more famous statues of the Old Testament hero by Donatello and Michelangelo, testifies to the always-tense political situation in Florence. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit

showing Verrocchio’s  David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1465

An independent city-state and a republic, Florence was surrounded by powerful enemies, Milan, Urbino and the Papacy. Strong leadership, by the Medici, was needed to oppose these external foes, but political factions in Florence feared that this powerful family would erode the democratic constitution, as eventually happened.     

The image of the young, heroic, giant-killing David was selected by the Florentines as the perfect symbol of their small, dynamic state. Three statues of David were commissioned by Donatello, Verrocchio and Michelangelo. Each represented a pivotal moment in the development of  sculpture in Florence. Donatello's David, dating to the 1440's, is an enigmatic figure, relaxed and arrogant, posing in a homoerotic stance. Michelangelo's David (1501-1504) is likewise nude, but stands tense and belligerent.

Verrocchio's David with the Head of Goliath, created around 1465, is one of his earliest works that can be dated. His David is clothed, wearing a kilt and a form-fitting tunic or jerkin. He is confident, but ready for action, just in case the Philistines try to avenge their fallen champion. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Andrea del Verrocchio’s Head of Goliath, c. 1465

Lying at David's feet is the head of Goliath. It is a detail which Verrocchio's youthful hero shares with Donatello's. There the comparison ends. 

Goliath's decapitated head is treated by Donatello's David with smirking contempt. Verrocchio presents him with compassion, indeed empathy. At one point, when the body of Verrocchio's David and the head of Goliath were still separate, the latter was assumed by visitors to Verrocchio's studio to be the head for a statue of St. John the Baptist. There could be no higher, if unintended, praise for Verrocchio since John the Baptist was the patron saint of Florence.

How and why did this emotional transformation occur? So little is known of Verrocchio's life that we can only ponder debatable theories for his sympathetic depiction of the fallen Goliath. 

Perhaps the best explanation lies with the rise of Humanism as the dominant philosophical school of thought in Italy during the 1400's, notably in Florence. Based on dedicated study of classical texts, many newly translated from Greek, Humanism stimulated an awareness of the psychological complexity of people, ancient and modern.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit

showing Verrocchio’s  David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1465

Verrocchio's David perfectly matched the mood and mission of Florence at the moment when the freedom-loving Tuscan city, Humanist scholarship and the "new art" of fifteenth century painting and sculpture were coming into a full-flowering.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) 

Andrea del Verrocchio’s Bust of Christ, c.1470/1483

The humanity with which Verrocchio depicted David and Goliath appears in work after work in the National Gallery exhibition. Especially notable is the Bust of Christ which Verrocchio originally modeled for one of his major full-bodied works, a statue of Christ and St. Thomas. This portrait of Jesus, renowned in its day as "the most beautiful head of Christ ever made," was then reworked as a terracotta bust. The version of this bust on view at the National Gallery, was likely a collaborative effort, with the head sculpted by Verrocchio and the torso handled by an assistant.

Later, with the tilt of the head changed left to right, this 'fully human, fully divine" Jesus would anchor a scene of bustling human activity in a famous painting: Leonardo's The Last Supper.

Verrocchio, I believe, should be regarded as a Humanist in the visual arts. Verrocchio's "close study" of the human body paralleled the diligent efforts, in translating ancient texts and writing learned commentaries, that transmitted this knowledge to an eager audience of young scholars throughout Italy and then in all the major nations of Europe.

Verrocchio's students, along with Leonardo and Perugino, likely included Domenico Ghirlandaio, in whose studio the young Michelangelo briefly worked.  Thus, we can trace a pedigree of creative genius from the workshop/studio of Verrocchio to the "artist as hero" of the High Renaissance.

In the case of Verrocchio's "passing the baton" to Leonardo, signature works by each artist reveal the way that this was accomplished.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

Andrea del Verrocchio’s Lady with Flowers, c. 1475/1480

Verrocchio sculpted his half-length marble, Lady with Flowers, during the years, 1475 to 1480. At the same time, the young Leonardo painted Ginevra de' Benci, but not as the head-and-shoulders portrait as it now is. The curators of the Verrocchio exhibit make a very cogent case that Ginevra de' Benci was originally a half-length portrait before being cut-down at a later date. Viewed in this way, Leonardo's Ginevera strikes a similar pose to Verrocchio's Lady, which likely influenced Leonardo's painting.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2019) 

Copy of exhibition wall illustration, contrasting a hypothetical version of       Leonardo’s Ginevra de' Benci with Verrocchio’s Lady with Flowers

For all of Verrocchio's success as a sculptor, it was his great ability in drawing that proved key in the dissemination of art innovation and techniques to the next generation of Florentine masters. Of all the many achievements of the National Gallery exhibition, the insights into Verrocchio  as draftsman are perhaps the most crucial to a re-assessment of his art.

Andrea del Verrocchio, Head of a Woman with Braided Hair, late 1470s

I was prepared to be impressed by Verrocchio's statues and sculpture. The gallery display of his drawings was a complete, if pleasurable, shock. The magnificent drawing from the British Museum collection, Head of a Woman with Braided Hair literally stopped me in my tracks each time I visited the Verrocchio exhibition - and I have been there three times! 

So masterful is the gradation of shading around the eye lids, that you half-expect them to open and Woman with Braided Hair to return your gaze.

This is double-sided work, with a finished drawing  on one side. An equally impressive preparatory sketch on the reverse, Head of a Woman Leaning on Her Right Hand. The identity of Woman with Braided Hair is a matter of speculation, with some scholars believing it to be a portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, the most beautiful woman of Florence. If so, it might have been a presentation piece for Guiliano de' Medici, who regarded her with courtly affection. Alas, Simonetta Vespucci died from tuberculosis, aged twenty-two, shortly before Guiliano was cut down by the Pazzi assassins.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

 Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Verrocchio’s  Head of a Woman Leaning on Her Right Hand

Head of a Woman with Braided Hair and her compatriot provide the central, focusing point of this gallery of Verrocchio's drawings. These are all superlative works of art, worthy of comparison to Michelangelo's drawings. There are only twenty-five known drawings by Verrocchio, so to be able study this selection at the National Gallery is an experience not likely to be repeated for many, many years to come.
  

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) 

Andrew Butterfield, Curator of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery

Andrew Butterfield, the eminent authority  on Verrocchio's sculptures, has done the art world an enormous service for the outstanding job of curating this magnificent exhibition. Similar accolades are due to him as editor and principle author of the exhibit catalog, truly a Renaissance masterpiece in its own right. I plan to review the catalog in order to more fully explore Verrocchio's art, especially his drawings. 

The greatest praise - and thoroughly deserved - that can be paid to Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence is to affirm that the study of Renaissance art will never be the same. The vital role of the workshop/studio system and of collaborative effort are themes which the exhibition underscores, in addition to documenting Verrocchio's individual contributions.

And what of the Renaissance "Artist as Hero" school of thought? Well, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo are still there. Donatello and Masaccio, too. They will just have to squeeze a little closer, to make room on the pediment frieze for Andrea del Verrocchio.  

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Text: Copyright of Ed Voves. Original Photos: Anne Lloyd. All rights reserved                                                                                           
Images courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Introductory Image:
Ed Voves, Photo (2019)  Andrea del Verrocchio’s Putto with a Dolphin (Detail), c. 1465/1480. Bronze: overall: 73.03 cm (28 3/4 in.); base: 125 cm (49 3/16 in.) Museo di Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra de' Benci.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Verrocchio’s Putto with a Dolphin, c. 1465/1480

Andrea del Verrocchio & assistants (Leonardo da Vinci & Pietro Perugino) Madonna and Child with Two Angels, c.1470/1474. Tempera on panel: overall: 97 x 71 cm (38 3/16 x 27 15/16 in.) The National Gallery, London, Bought, 1857

Andrea del Verrocchio (Attributed) Small Vase with Cover, c. 1480/1485. Sardonyx with silver-gilt mountings: height: 16 cm (6 5/16 in.); diameter: 9 cm (3 9/16 in.); diameter: 5 cm (1 15/16 in.) Gallerie degli Uffizi, Tesoro dei Granduchi, Florence.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Portrait Bust of Lorenzo de' Medici, ca.1513/1520, probably after a model by Andrea del Verrocchio and Orsino Benintendi, ca/ 1478. Polychrome terracotta: overall: 65.8 x 59.1 x 32.7 cm (25 7/8 x 23 1/4 x 12 7/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)  Andrea del Verrocchio’s Giuliano de' Medici, c. 1475/1478. Terracotta with traces of polychromy: overall: 61 x 66 x 28.3 cm (24 x 26 x 11 1/8 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Verrocchio’s David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1465. Bronze with traces of gilding: overall: 120 cm (47 1/4 in.) Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)  Andrea del Verrocchio’s Head of Goliath, c.1465. Bronze with traces of gilding: overall: 120 cm (47 1/4 in.) Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Verrocchio’s David with the Head of Goliath, c.1465.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)  Andrea del Verrocchio’s Bust of Christ (Detail), c. 1470/1483. Polychrome terracotta: overall: 68 x 71.2 x 40.6 cm (26 3/4 x 28 1/16 x 16 in.) Private collection. Photo: Yale University Art Gallery.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Andrea del Verrocchio's Lady with Flowers, c. 1475/1480. Marble: overall: 60 x 48 x 25 cm (23 5/8 x 18 7/8 x 9 13/16 in.) Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
Anne Lloyd, Photo (2019) Copy of exhibition wall illustration, contrasting a hypothetical version of Leonardo’s Ginevra de' Benci with Verrocchio’s Lady with Flowers.

Andrea del Verrocchio. Head of a Woman with Braided Hair (recto); Head of a Woman Leaning on Her Right Hand (verso),late 1470s. Recto: black chalk or charcoal, lead white gouache, pen and brown ink, reworked with oil charcoal on cream prepared paper; verso: charcoal on white paper: overall: 32.4 x 27.3 cm (12 3/4 x 10 3/4 in.) On loan from the Trustees of the British Museum, London.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)  Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Verrocchio’s Head of a Woman Leaning on Her Right Hand.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Andrew Butterfield, Curator of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.   
                                                                                                                                           

Art Eyewitness Book Review: The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance

Edited by Gordon Campbell

Oxford University Press/$39.95/506 pages

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Andy Warhol and the Renaissance of the 1400's-!500's seldom occupy the same paragraph in art history books or essays. Yet as I finished reading The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance, Warhol's famous (or infamous) prediction came to mind.

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes."

Since the fame of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Durer has lasted a lot longer than a quarter of an hour, my reflection on Warhol's statement seemed little more than a random thought. But as I reread some of the especially cogent passages of the Oxford volume, the following statement seemed a likely candidate for having directed my thoughts in Warhol's direction.

The proliferation of images and texts brought about by the invention of printing (c.1440) confirm that the Renaissance experienced a revolution comparable in magnitude to the recent emergence of the Internet. The word 'selfie' is recent but the Renaissance brought about and developed the self-portrait and the portrait. 

This perceptive insight appears in the chapter of the Oxford book, "The Civilization of the Renaissance," written by François Quiviger. An echo of the title of the famous nineteenth century book, The Civilization of the Renaissance In Italy by Jacob Burckhardt, is detectable here. Quiviger and the other members of the team of scholars who wrote The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance show that the impact of this cultural revolution spread far wider than Italy.
   

Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors, 1533

The Renaissance was marked by world-changing inventions like movable-print and realistic portrait painting. These in turn facilitated the emergence of "the sense of the self in the world." During this long-ago era, the seeds of modern individualism were planted. Whether our opportunity for fame lasts fifteen minutes or five centuries, the debt we owe to the "brave new world" of the Renaissance is considerable.

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance is the latest in an outstanding series of books dating back to the 1980's. Based on the latest historical research but aimed at the general reader, the Oxford "Illustrated's" have maintained a very high standard over the years. This volume, edited by the great Renaissance scholar, Gordon Campbell, certainly maintains the Oxford University Press reputation for excellence.

Among the historians recruited to write this authoritative book is Felipe Fernández-Armesto, who edited The Oxford Illustrated History of the World, reviewed earlier this year in Art Eyewitness. The chapter written by Fernández-Armesto deals with the global impact of the Renaissance. With his usual verve and command of the historical source material, Fernández-Armesto investigates the way that interconnected bonds were forged between far-flung nations and societies.

 The process of globalization was very slow during the 1400's and early 1500's, being contingent more on mariners' understanding of the trajectory of the "trade winds" than of strategic planning by the governments of Europe.

"The history of the world, as traditionally written," Fernández-Armesto wryly observes, "contains too much hot air and not enough wind."

Afro-Portuguese Ivory Hunting-horn, c.1490-1530

The carved ivory horn, shown above, illustrates this world-wide perspective on the Renaissance. It was made in Africa for the European market and taken back by Portuguese maritime traders. The base of the horn shows an armillary sphere, the Coat of Arms of the Portuguese royal house and the cross of Beja. Scenes of Europeans and Africans fighting and hunting animals are also featured.

If the global trade had been limited to exotic products such as this ivory horn, the world  would be a different place today. Vast hauls of treasure from the New World, chiefly silver, flowed into the Spanish treasury and flowed right out again. The "King's Fifth" was used chiefly to purchase weapons, especially gunpowder-firing cannon, state-of-the-art warships and elaborate fortifications capable of resisting the formidable armies and fleets of the rival Valois French monarchy and  the Ottoman Turks. There is an instructive chapter on the Renaissance "arms-race" written by David Parrott in the Oxford volume.

Giorgio Vasari, The Battle of Lepanto, 1572

If the Renaissance witnessed endemic warfare, the growth of a world-wide slave trade (with plenty of guilt to share among all the participants of this "trafficking of souls") and social repression in most European societies, can we really justify the claim that a "Renaissance" actually took place? Or is such a claim more of the "hot air and not enough wind" which Fernández-Armesto derides?

It is the contention of the Oxford team that the Renaissance was indeed a revolutionary epoch in every field of creative endeavor. This was especially true in the visual arts, which we will focus upon shortly. The unpleasant aspects of the Renaissance are not brushed aside and the prevailing theme of the book is best summarized by Quiviger in the concluding remarks of his chapter:

Many scholars have observed that the ideals and values of the Renaissance are merely a sugar coating concealing the darker, violent, and ever present nature of men, driven by ambition and rivalry. Sugar coating is nevertheless a first step towards sweetening. This is simply a matter of not confusing a period with its ideals… Similarly, the ideals of good manners and elegance… may not have been the norms of their time but their European diffusion suggests that they did eventually have an impact upon the world.

The "sugar coating" which the Renaissance applied to European society and indirectly to the world was a long and complex process. Because we still see the results in art, architecture and literature produced during 1400's and 1500's, it is easy to miss two fundamental points.

Most of the texts used by Renaissance scholars were available only because "Dark Age" scribes, many of them Irish monks, had preserved them. If a manuscript copy of a Latin text survived to the ninth century, as Peter Mack writes in his chapter on Renaissance humanism, it "was never truly lost again." Greek texts were similarly preserved in the Byzantine Empire and transmitted to Italy in the years prior to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. 

Petrarch's copy of Livy, c.1329.

 Detail of manuscript copy of the history of Rome by Livy, 22.1

The "heroic" role of the Renaissance scholar was to rigorously organize and study what had been salvaged from ancient times and to disseminate this "new" knowledge all over Europe. Humanism, as the new scholarship was called, had commenced decades before the first use of the printing press in the early 1450's. We can see Humanism in action on the manuscript pages of the Roman history of Livy, personally copied and corrected by Petrarch (1304-1374) and further annotated by Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457).

Secondly, the artistic revolution of depicting Jesus, the Virgin Mary and other saintly figures with flesh and blood naturalism was another Medieval development. The preaching of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and his followers, the Franciscans, emphasized the humanity of Jesus and the need for Christians to practice levels of devotion that reflected the sufferings of Jesus and the Christian martyrs.

The preaching of the Franciscans called for "art that bleeds" as Andrew Graham-Dixon memorably described in his wonderful book, Renaissance. Artists, both in Italy and Flanders, complied with alacrity. 

Jan van Eyck, Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, c.1435

It was the Flemish who took the key step of transferring the naturalism used in portraying Jesus, Mary and the Apostles to portraits of Christian believers. Special attention was given to those willing to pay to be included in the picture, like Chancellor Rolin of Burgundy, shown above. But the real breakthrough came about when Italian merchants working in Flanders, like Tommaso Portinari, commissioned paintings showing them and their wives praying before Jesus and his mother.

 Prior to the arrival in Italy of these oil paintings from Flanders, Italian artists had been exploring other aspects of art, such as creating a sense of visual space through the use of linear perspective. Portraits in Italy were chiefly done in profile, because of the obsession with collecting ancient Roman coins. Of deeply-probing psychological insight, there was precious little. When the portraits by Flemish masters like Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling reached Italy, the effect was dramatic.

Antonello da Messina, Portrait of a Man (Il Condottiere),1475

In this sensational portrait by Antonello da Messina, we can see the result. This incredible work is the perfect embodiment of the Renaissance "sense of the self in the world."

Antonello may have learned oil painting from an itinerant Flemish painter at the court of the Kingdom of Naples. However he acquired the techniques of the Flemish masters, Antonello soon matched them in the ability to probe the human soul and to portray the result on canvas or panel.

The age of Individualism had dawned.

Albrecht Dürer, The Large Piece of Turf, 1503

The techniques of close investigation of human character began to be applied to the study of nature, stunningly revealed in Durer's Large Piece of Turf. Soon the new critical thinking and observation was being trained on the stars and planets, leading to Copernicus' challenge to traditional, earth-centered astronomy. The Oxford volume includes a chapter filled with insightful analysis of the Scientific Revolution which ultimately was the most momentous result of the Renaissance.

Just about every facet of life in Europe was affected by the "new" learning and meticulous tinkering which the Renaissance engendered. This extended even to special techniques for folding napkins at banquets into the shape of animals, ships and castles! This too is described in The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance.

The Oxford volume, however, does not cover in great detail the famous incidents in the careers of the titans of Renaissance art. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Durer and Titian do make appearances in the book and their art works are considered in the broad context of Renaissance civilization. Two chapters provide a solid foundation to the study of Italian art (written by Francis Ames-Lewis) and the Northern Renaissance (Paula Nuttall and Richard Williams).

Most of the familiar and fascinating events, feuds, etc. are not featured. No mention of screaming matches between Michelangelo and Pope Julius II. Discussion of Italian art ends for the most part with the death of Raphael in 1520.

I can see the point of Gordon Campbell and his team of Renaissance scholars, given the global framework of this outstanding book. There is so much ground to cover and it makes sense to concentrate on the factors that created the Renaissance "sense of the self in the world."

Never-the-less, reading The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance has placed me in a perplexing situation not unlike that faced by the actor, Bill Murray, in the movie Groundhog Day!

My very first exposure to Renaissance art ended - as does the corresponding chapter of the Oxford book - with Italian art in the early 1500's. Way back in the 1970's, I took an undergrad course in Renaissance art. The professor was so smitten with Brunelleschi, Donatello  and other Quattrocento masters that we ran out of time. When the course ended, Leonardo was still waiting for the paint to dry on The Last Supper.

Hopefully, Oxford University Press will publish an Illustrated History of the Later Renaissance and I will finally discover what happened to Michelangelo.

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                                                           
Images courtesy of the National Gallery, London, the British Museum, Musée du Louvre, the Albertina Museum, the British Library and Wikipedia.org 

Introductory Image:
Book Cover. Courtesy of Oxford University Press

Hans Holbein (German/Swiss, 1497/8-1543) Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve ('The Ambassadors'), 1533. Oil on oak: 207 x 209.5 cm. National Gallery, London: NG1314

Artist unknown ((Africa,Sierra Leone) Afro-Portuguese Ivory Hunting-horn, c.1490-1530. Carved from elephant ivory, base of horn fitted with silver-gilt rim:  48.2 centimetres. British Museum, Af1979,01.3156.

Giorgio Vasari (Italian,1511–1574) The Battle of Lepanto, 1572. Fresco in the Sala Regia of the Vatican. 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giorgio-vasari-battle-of-lepanto.jpg

Petrarch's copy of Livy. Detail of manuscript copy of the history of ancient Rome by Livy, 22.1, with corrections by Petrarch, 1304-1374, (interlinear) and Lorenzo Valla (marginalia). Italy and France (Avignon), late 12th century-c 1329. British Library, London. Harley MS 2493, f 105v.

Jan van Eyck (Flemish, c.1390-1441) Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, c. 1435. Oil on panel: 66cm x 62cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_of_Chancellor_Rolin

Antonello da Messina (italian/Sicilian, 1430-1479) Portrait of a Man (Il Condottiere), 1475. Oil on panel: 36.2 cm (14.2 ″); Width: 30 cm (11.8 ″).  Musée du Louvre, Paris. http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=obj_view_obj&objet=cartel_13724_28067_p0003425.002.jpg_obj.html&flag=false

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) The Large Piece of Turf, 1503. Watercolor and body color, heightened with white body color: 40.8 cm (16 ″) x 31.5 cm (12.4″). Albertina Museum,Vienna.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer-The_Large_Piece_of_Turf,_1503_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg