Wednesday, February 8, 2012

One of my favorite artists of all time is Albrect Durer. His work he created in prints are, in my opinion, some of the most detailed and best well done pieces of artwork and most fabulous prints in all of art history. When Albrect was studying art and taking his time in  his youth to travel, one of his trips was to Italy to learn about the art of the Italian Renaissance and he loved it. He liked the Roman and Greek idealized presentation the Italians used ad their subjects in their paintings, along with the religious content and all the different hidden and the clearly stated items that had meaning and were in the painting for specific reasons.

One of Durer's well known prints is his interpretation of Adam and Eve. He presents Adam and Eve in the center and up in the foreground. The first man and woman are etched in the idealized perfection of the Italian Renaissance, both being muscular, in perfect equal proportions, and showing them standing in loose, relaxed stances. Durer placed Adam and Eve in the setting of the Garden, and places many meaningful atributes and items that fit in with the idea of behaving or being punished by God, to enforce the message of having an etching of Adam and Eve. This etching is Durers first documented representation of ideal human figures in his prints.

Most of Durer's prints were scenes showing the result of what would happen if the community was to misbehave, with Adam and Eve, he is plainly showing the iconic story of the first sin. My favorite piece by Durer is The Apocalypse. It is an etching showing the actions that would lead to the Apocalypse. I like that he shows such epic, and meaningful scenes that are so full of meaning and invoke such a... scared and powerful message, yet are done so in a way that makes his work elegant and beautiful, and seem to be made for a very high, important class.