DISCOVERING THE DÜRER CIPHER HIDDEN SECRETS IN PLAIN SIGHT DISCOVERING THE DÜRER CIPHER HIDDEN SECRETS IN PLAIN SIGHT OCTOBER 8 –NOVEMBER 23 2012 Director Notes Discovering the Dürer Cipher explores the prints were made and seeks to strip away passions that ignite artists, collectors, and palimpsest titles in order to help us see scholars to pursue the hidden secrets of one clearly the images before us. of the great heroes of the Northern Renais- It is with great pleasure that the Rebecca sance, Albrecht Dürer. This exhibition Randall Bryan Art Gallery invites you to comprises more than forty prints gathered enjoy this catalog and exhibition of the together by collector Elizabeth Maxwell- brilliance of Albrecht Dürer. Our sincerest Garner. Inspired by her love of the artist, appreciation and thanks extend to Elizabeth she amassed this outstanding collection to Maxwell-Garner, whose passion and insights aid her research into why the artist produced have brought this collection together. his astonishingly unusual iconography and for whom these prints were made. Jim Arendt Her research has led her to a series of Director, Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery startling conclusions not found in previous scholarly interpretations of Dürer prints. Of special note are her investigations into the interrelatedness of Dürer’s prints and his possible use of steganography, a form of concealed writing executed in such a manner that only the author and intended recipients are aware of its existence. Garner’s assertions draw attention to the inconsistency found in centuries of symbolic interpretation and reinterpretation of this popular artists work. Through detailed analysis of the city life of 15th and 16th century Nuremburg, Garner explores the social and economic climate in which these Foreward by Stephanie R. Miller, Ph.D. The expression “Renaissance Man” often Albrecht Dürer treated his art as a business, inquisitive spirit, his entrepreneurial drive, transformations in print media, but also experienced the transition from one century calls to mind the Italian Renaissance master one that would become very successful. In and perhaps encouraged his prodigious the cradle of the Protestant Reformation, to the next, the beginning of the Protestant Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), but the a letter to a patron, Dürer commented on *)&#!&#"(.7&>7&1(9:)$)(')!&(&)*#%$3(*!(*( famously initiated by Martin Luther in 1517 Revolution, and the outbreak of the Peasants’ sentiment embodied in that phrase equally the lucrative business of printmaking, “no goldsmith with his father, and then with the JK7)$@,$)5(./'"#*++8(*3.>&$3(L7&0$)*%- War (1525). Although Dürer was a painter applies to the German master Albrecht one shall ever compel me to paint a picture painter and printmaker Michael Wolgemut ism in 1525). The print medium was well throughout his life, this “Renaissance Man” Dürer (1471-1528). The interests of the two again with so much labor…henceforth I (1434/37-1519). Wolgemut was crucial to served by the Protestant Reformation and responded to the world—people and events Renaissance artists correspond in several shall stick to my engraving, and had I done Dürer›s growth as an artist and particularly vice versa, and Dürer was one of several —most directly in the printed medium. The ways and both were considered artistic and so before I should today have been a richer as a printmaker; Wolgemut’s workshop was artists who exploited the versatility of prints; broad circulation of his prints during and !"#$%&#'"(&)*#+,+*-$)!(./(&0$#)($)*1(2.&0(*)&#!&!( @*%(,8(ABBB(C.)#%!1D(E0$(&)*%!/.)@*&#.%( responsible for several woodblock prints multiple prints of the same image could be since his lifetime has guaranteed Dürer’s were passionate about recording nature and of the woodblock print is certainly among included in the popular publication, the widely disseminated, and they were relatively enduring legacy. *34*%"#%5(!"#$%&#'"(#%67#)81(9:)$);!(3)*<#%5!=( Dürer’s accomplishments in printmaking. Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). It is likely Dürer inexpensive to produce and to purchase. such as his well-known Large Piece of Turf (1503, As elaborated in Elizabeth Garner’s essay, also contributed to the Chronicle which was Dürer sold series of religious prints to the Stephanie R. Miller, Ph.D. Albertina, Vienna), demonstrate meticulous woodblock prints prior to Dürer tended published in his home city. pious faithful, sold portraits of his contem- Assistant Professor of Art History care in the study and rendering of the natural to be basic with few tonal areas and Perhaps because he traveled so frequently, poraries or gave them as gifts to friends, and world, and this careful observation is the minimal details. After Dürer, woodblock Dürer signed many of his engravings and tantalized collectors with iconographically foundation of his paintings and his many prints included substantial tonal gradations woodblock prints with “AD of Nuremberg” )#"0(>)#%&!(./&$%('++$3(<#&0(+*&$%&(.>#%#.%!( >)#%&!1(?33#&#.%*++8=(9:)$)(<).&$(!"#$%&#'"( with new and varied textures, livelier &.($@>0*!#-$(0#!(#3$%&#'"*&#.%(<#&0(&0$( about current events and beliefs, such as treatises on the study of perspective and details, and a sense of atmosphere. Such city of his birth. Among his travels, he was Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513) or Peasant geometry (Teaching of Measurements, 1525, and #%%.4*&#.%!(".%&)#,7&$3(&.(0#!(>).'&*,+$( perhaps most inspired by his two extended Monument (1525). Prints for Dürer were im- Four Books of Human Proportion, posthumously business in printmaking. visits to Italy (1494-1495 and again from mediate responses to ideas, events, people, published in 1528). Like Leonardo, Dürer Albrecht Dürer was a citizen of Nuremberg, AFBFGAFBHI1(9:)$)(<*!(#%C7$%"$3(,8(&0$( and opinions; further, compared to paint- traveled widely, perhaps more extensively Germany from his birth to his death, and classical antique and the Italian Renaissance; ing, prints were also more economical in than Leonardo, to advance his artistic skills, his ties to the city were strengthened by his however, he never mimicked the Italian &$)@!(./(0#!(&#@$(*%3(@.)$(>).'&*,+$1(M$( career, and knowledge. Furthermore, Dürer marriage to Agnes Frey, who was from a style, rather he adapted it and infused it with #%&$)*"&$3(<#&0(>).@#%$%&(0#!&.)#"*+('57)$!( was as artistically experimental as Leonardo, prominent Nuremberg family. The city itself his own Northern stylistic traditions, politics, from Erasmus of Rotterdam, to Frederick but Dürer’s experiments in printmaking was instrumental to the artist’s development. and religious background. Germany was the Wise (Elector of Saxony), to the Holy <$)$(7%#67$(*%3(.//$)$3('%*%"#*+(!7""$!!1 This progressive, humanist city fostered his home not only to some of the early Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Hidden Secrets in Plain Sight Discovering the Dürer Cipher by Elizabeth Maxwell-Garner Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) is Germany’s peoples of the Holy Roman Empire, the prints were the cheapest to produce, because most important artist and one of Europe’s Balkans and the Kingdom of Hungary, of the relatively low cost of the wood, and most famous Renaissance stars. His complex Dürer shrewdly titled it The Secret Revelation of they were the most economical because and dramatic imagery has entranced St. John (in German, Die Heimlich Offenbarung the durability of the woodblocks allowed viewers and puzzled scholars for more than Johanis) ostensibly to increase market share. for extensive print runs that could produce '4$("$%&7)#$!1(M#!(@.!&(/*@.7!($%5)*4#%5( Who doesn’t love learning about secrets? many copies of the same print. Melencholia I, has spawned tens of thousands And yet no scholar to date has speculated on The other three printmaking techniques of speculative commentaries about the what these secrets might be. used by Dürer are known collectively as connotation of the complex imagery, and Both the German and the Latin versions intaglio prints, which indicates that the image the secrets in many of his compositions have of this crucial work became European is incised into the printing surface, usually stymied art historians. sensations within a three-year period, and a metal plate, and when paper is pressed Until now. Dürer’s printed version of the Apocalypse against the inked plate, the image forms In the early part of his career, from 1495 remains the most famous artistic interpretation from the ink in the recesses on the plate. In until late 1500, Dürer was an artist of only of the Book of Revelations even today. intaglio prints, the artist typically both designs regional importance, whose market was Although his paintings are also impressive, the image and creates the printing plate. primarily the south-central Bavarian Dürer is best known for his graphic prints. Dürer usually used copper plates for his German cities of Nuremberg, his birthplace, He created four different types of printed intaglio prints, since it was readily available Regensberg, Augsburg, and Frankfurt. images: woodcuts, engravings, etchings and due to the local armor industry, but for his He gained widespread fame with his 1498 3)8>.#%&!=(<0#"0(!#5%#'"*%&+8(4*)8(#%(&0$#)( etchings he preferred iron. >7,+#"*&#.%(./ ('/&$$%(>)#%&!(,*!$3(.%(&0$( technique. Drypoint is a technique in which an New Testament book of Revelations, A woodcut is printed from a woodblock image is incised into the metal plate with released in two versions, with either Latin or on which an image in relief has been cut a hard-pointed