Early Renaissance, Part 4

Question 1: Discuss Dürer’s Knight Death and the Devil.

Answer 1: Knight Death and the Devil is an engraving created by Dürer in 1513. It illustrates a landscape filled with devils, death, and darkness, much like his earlier work, Apocalypse. The central figure of the scene—a single resolute knight—sits atop his horse and rides bravely against the evil. He is armed with a lance that dominates the picture and a sword that points onward toward the darkness. The knight is reminiscent of Donatello’s sculpture of St. George, the warrior saint, whose face projected courage and determination derived from inner strength. The horse is similar to the Four Golden Horses, a work of Greek art that sits atop San Marco. The knight’s armor is copied from a sketching of German armor that Dürer had made in 1498. The devils are based on the artwork of Martin Schoengauer, Dürer’s predecessor. Despite its religious connotations, the work is definitely humanistic in scope; the devils and Death—supernatural agents—seem powerless against the courage and determination of the human figure.

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Question 2: Discuss Dürer’s St. Jerome in His Study.

Answer 2: St. Jerome in His Study is an engraving created by Dürer in 1514. It depicts the famous monk, who translated the Bible into Latin, sitting in his study and contemplating his work. Despite the inherent restrictions of the engraving medium, Durer creates a complex image through his skillful use of light and shadow: Light pours through the study windows above St. Jerome, throwing shadows across the wall. However, the halo around St. Jerome’s head outshines everything in the room. Having studied the dramatic perspective techniques that are found in Jan van Eyck’s paintings, Dürer uses orthogonal shapes to create the illusion of depth—as if the viewer were looking at St. Jerome from the other side of the room. By placing such a focus on St. Jerome’s study, the work conveys the humanistic ideals of the early Renaissance period; the study is a place where the human mind pursues intellectual, scholarly, and philosophic endeavors.

Question 3: Discuss Dürer’s Melancholia I.

Answer 3: Melancholia I is an engraving created by Dürer in 1514. It is widely regarded as the final work of his three great master engravings, which also include Knight Death and the Devil and St. Jerome in His Study. In Melancholia I, Dürer explores the most popular of all human temperaments during the medieval period, melancholy, which was associated with despair, intellectual contemplation, and creative genius. The work itself is a visual illustration of melancholy: Saturn’s daughter gazes into space with a contemplative and glum expression. She is surrounded by various mathematical tools, measuring devices, and crafts strewn haphazardly about. A dog, a symbol of melancholy, sits at her feet. In the distance, the viewer glimpses a dusky sea that resembles the black bile from which the melancholy state was believed to derive. Melancholia I was likely influenced by the ideas of both Marsilio Ficino and Agrippa of Nettesheim, who wrote at length about the melancholy humor. Additionally, Dürer himself was often described as melancholy.

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