ALBRECHT DÜRER’S Renaissance - University of Michigan Press

[Pages:19]Albrecht Durer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith David Hotchkiss Price The University of Michigan Press

ALBRECHT D?RER'S

Renaissance

Albrecht Durer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith David Hotchkiss Price The University of Michigan Press

Albrecht Durer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith David Hotchkiss Price The University of Michigan Press

ALBRECHT D?RER'S

Renaissance

HUMANISM, REFO RMATION,

AND THE

ART OF FAITH

David Hotchkiss Price

the university of michigan press ann arbor

Albrecht Durer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith David Hotchkiss Price The University of Michigan Press

Copyright ? by the University of Michigan 2003 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper

2006 2005 2004 2003 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Price, David, 1957?

Albrecht D?rer's Renaissance : humanism, reformation, and the art

of faith / David Hotchkiss Price.

p. cm. -- (Studies in medieval and early modern civilization)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-472-11343-7 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. D?rer, Albrecht, 1471?1528--Criticism and interpretation.

2. Art, Renaissance. 3. Humanism in art. 4. Reformation and art.

5. Christian art and symbolism--Europe. I. Title. II. Series.

N6888.D8 P75 2003

760.092--dc21

2003001359

Albrecht Durer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith David Hotchkiss Price The University of Michigan Press

Jaroslav Pelikan and

Donald Weinstein

Albrecht Durer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith David Hotchkiss Price The University of Michigan Press

PREFACE

if a gravitational center for the D?rer universe could still exist, it would remain, even after over a half-century, Erwin Panofsky. Scholarship on early modern European culture has become profoundly decentered, even to the point of questioning the usefulness of the term Renaissance, and it has produced amazingly diverse accomplishments and discoveries, all of which, taken together, has antiquated Panofsky's classic study. Of course, a classic, by definition, must be antiquated. A classic is also compelling, when read on its own terms. This one has been so compelling that, in one way or another, many D?rer scholars still trace their work back to the big bang of Panofsky's book, in particular for assessments of style, not to mention the fundamental interpretations of iconography. I stress this in part because a few of the following pages will suggest a view strongly critical of certain interpretations. Of course, understood in the appropriate sense, those pages will also attest the powerful sway his book still exerts. By saying that, I do not intend to dismiss the important contributions of the hundreds of post-Panofsky interpretations. The last decade has even seen the appearance of two valuable biographies of D?rer, Jane Campbell Hutchison's and Ernst Rebel's. Since the surge of social history in early modern European studies, the culturally conservative, formalist methodology of Panofsky has left many historians cold, even if no one could ever find one of Panofsky's individual analyses boring.1 Yes, he had biases, the most basic of

Albrecht Durer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith David Hotchkiss Price The University of Michigan Press

Preface

which was a strong valorization of classical ideals of art. This bias, though, is one he shared, fittingly enough, with his subject.

If there is, relatively speaking, a weakness even within the bounds of Panofsky's formalist methodology, it is in the characterization of the complex history of religion in D?rer's lifetime. Some of the least satisfying, but nonetheless most influential, pages are those that contrast Lutheran and humanist sensibilities, an issue I will address in detail in chapters 8 and 9. After all, Panofsky's D?rer monograph first appeared in 1943 on the eve of a real golden age of Reformation studies. The scholars we now take for granted-- Thomas Brady, Bernd Moeller, Heiko Oberman, Steven Ozment, Jaroslav Pelikan, Lewis Spitz, and Gerald Strauss, just to name a few--were unknown to him. On the whole, and despite the appearance of some basic works (such as Hans Rupprich's D?rers Schriftlicher Nachla? and Fedja Anzelewsky's catalogue raisonn? of D?rer's paintings), historical research even more than arthistorical research has made Panofsky obsolete. Yet, even when Panofsky was unable to probe the historical context of religion very deeply, he often produced stunningly accurate descriptions of visual innovations. The traditionalist, formalist, iconologist--however one wishes to label Panofsky-- is perhaps the one most capable of observing such fine detail.

In the decades since Panofsky, scholars have become comfortable with characterizing the cultural ideals of Renaissance humanism as elitist, and for good reason--they were. The very term Renaissance, instead of early modern Europe, has become problematic because it signals an interest in only one segment of culture, however dominant it may have been. Still, the concept of the Renaissance is expressive and generally appropriate for characterizing D?rer's outlook. At the root of the terminological dilemma of the cultural historian of this period lies a paradigm of high and low, elitist and popular. However salutary this terminological and conceptual circumspection may be, the paradigm underlying it can obscure an important element: humanists were concerned about popular culture, especially about the practice of religion among ordinary people.

This book, as the subtitle indicates, is about humanism, the Reformation, and the expression of religious faith in art. With the general title Albrecht D?rer's Renaissance I intend to signal that the subtitle's elements of "humanism" and "Reformation" were major components of his Renaissance aesthetic. I also intend the genitive Albrecht D?rer's to have a restrictive rather than possessive sense. D?rer doesn't own the northern Renaissance, and this is, self-consciously, an individual study of one Renaissance development, however larger its significance may be.

viii

Albrecht Durer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith David Hotchkiss Price The University of Michigan Press

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

the ever-increasing duration of this project has been generating an ever-increasing list of people and institutions to thank for assistance. One of the many pleasures writing this book has been encountering so much generosity.

"Ein Buch wird erst ein Buch, wenn es ein Buch geworden ist," besides seeming truer with every book I write, dictates acknowledgment of several people at the University of Michigan Press, especially Christopher Collins, Collin Ganio, Mary Hashman, and Sarah Mann. They stood by me with advice and encouragement, graciously guiding the manuscript through a surprisingly large number of stages. Marvin Becker also played a big role in publishing this book. When I wrote the word "generosity" in the first paragraph his name was the first association my mind made. It was he who, after taking the time to review an early version of the book, first recommended it to the University of Michigan Press. I am also deeply grateful for the editorial expertise of Christina Milton and Richard Isomaki.

The project got several boosts from invitations to speak at universities, including the University of Cincinnati, Cornell University, Harvard University, University of Massachusetts, Notre Dame University, Southern Methodist University, and Washington University. I'm grateful for all those opportunities and especially for the questions and discussions they occasioned, particularly for conversations with Glenn Ehrstine, Arthur Groos, Craig Harbison, Steven Ozment, Richard Schade, and George Schoolfield.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download