Dürer’s Foreign Language
Left: Dürer, Self-portrait (c.1491), detail. Erlangen.
Right: Dürer, Rape of Europa and other studies (c.1491-6) Pen and ink on paper. Albertina, Vienna
"The art of painting cannot be truly judged save by such that are themselves good painters: from others, verily is it hidden, even as a strange tongue."
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)1
If, as I believe, Dürer disguised himself as a lion in the sketch at right, no wonder he described art as a foreign language. Few seem to speak it.
1. Cited in Elizabeth Holt, Documentary History of Art, vol 1, (Princeton University Press) p.314
Posted 08 Mar 2013: Artists as AnimalsDurer
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