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Albrecht Durers The Four Horsemen ¿f the Apocalypse
Introduction
In some respects, it is difficult to claim Durer as a Reformation painter. On the one hand, ¿f the three leading figures ¿f German Protestant art, Durer, Cranach, and Holbein, it was Durer who left the clearest evidence ¿f personal commitment to the new faith; a conversion experience as complete, and almost as dramatic, as that ¿f Luther himself. On the other hand, the Reformation movement occurred so late in Durers career that the proportion on his oeuvre which bore evidence ¿f his new religious beliefs was comparatively slight. Had Durer lived to the venerable age ¿f Lucas Cranach, perhaps things might have been different. But his death in 1528 deprived the movement ¿f its most distinguished and potentially innovative artistic supporter. Ultimately it would fall to others to find visual formulas to express the movements new theological preoccupations.
It is arguable that in any case, Durer had given too much ¿f his creative genius to the reinterpretation ¿f an older artistic tradition to demand ¿f him a further fundamental reorientation at this stage ¿f his career. In artistic terms, Durers work was already revolutionary and was widely recognized as such by contemporaries, who credited Durer with bringing to German art the sophistication and poise ¿f new technical discoveries ¿f the Italian Renaissance. Durer was widely acknowledged as the leading genius of German art, pampered and flattered by the powerful as Europes leading patrons ¿f art vied for his services. It says much for the peculiar charm of the emperor, Maximillian I, that despite his famously empty pockets he successfully commanded a disproportionate amount of Durers time and creative energies. But his successor, Charles V, was also a patron, as were the leading protagonists in the Luther controversies, Frederick the Wise and Albrecht ¿f Brandenburg. Durers work had a universal appeal that easily crossed the emerging confessional boundaries.
Albrecht Durers biography
Albrecht Durer was born in 1471, the son ¿f a Nuremberg goldsmith. This was a fortunate heritage; Nuremberg, the largest city in the empire, was then at the height ¿f its mediæval prosperity, and the young Albrecht could have anticipated a prosperous career in his fathers trade. Early evidence ¿f the boys precocious talent, however, dictated a change ¿f direction and by 1494 Durer had opened his new independent workshop as a painter and graphic artist. In the following years, Durer interspersed periods ¿f intense creative activity with study trips to Switzerland and Italy, and it was the latter, inevitably, which had the greatest influence on his artistic style.
Durers well-known woodcut ¿f the four horsemen as described in the Book ¿f Revelation has been studied at great length and from many angles. However, the writers ¿f this new study make a major contribution to the discussion by demonstrating that contemporary folk consciously used this particular image to better understand the troubles that beset them and to frame these crises in an intelligible and meaningful context.
An image of the Apocalypse
As Cunningham and Grell of Cambridge University and the Open University, respectively, maintain, Durers Four Horsemen informed the sense ¿f apocalyptic dread that permeated European society from about 1490 until 1648, when the end ¿f the 30 Years War brought about a more stabilized society that no longer used the Apocalypse as its defining paradigm.
Durer, ¿f course, was not the first artist to create an image ¿f the Apocalypse. However, the authors argue compellingly that what made Durers image resonate so strongly with his contemporaries (and with generations ¿f artists afterward) was that it showed all ¿f the horsemen arriving together, thus unifying the three horsemen representing the crises ¿f war, famine, disease, and death with the rider ¿f the white horse, who represented Judgment Day, an event feared daily by the men and women ¿f the Middle Ages.
Unlike writers who move toward medieval European history from a variety ¿f, discrete lenses (e.g., military history, social history, Reformation history), Cunningham and Grell aver that they ¿ffer a more comprehensive understanding ¿f the medieval worldview. Their effort, following the lead ¿f Norman Cohens defining Pursuit ¿f the Millennium, provides an enlightening and valuable contribution to the study ¿f the role ¿f eschatology in the early modern world that will hold much interest for students ¿f that period.
This is a new understanding for the European history and in this new interpretation, Cunningham and Grell (coeditors, Health Care and Poor Relief in Counter-Reformation Europe) argue that the four horsemen ¿f Albrecht Durers renowned 1498 woodcut prefigure the religious conflict, war, famine, and pestilence that characterized the 16th and 17th centuries.
According to the writers, church leaders expectations ¿f frequent European tragedies can best be explained as apocalyptic. The white horse symbolizes religious conflicts among Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims ¿f the Ottoman Empire; the red horse typifies two centuries ¿f arduous warfare; the black horse denotes centuries ¿f famine owing to war and overpopulation, and the pale horse represents pestilence owing to all ¿f the above. In support ¿f this dismal situation, the authors ¿ffer reprints ¿f 74 woodcuts depicting some ¿f the most gruesome and grotesque images ¿f this period ¿f early modern history. The reader certainly gets the feeling that the book overstates its case.
Authors ¿f the history now know that wars in these centuries were as much political as they were religious, while wars after 1648 were frequently as much religious as they were political.
Englishmen and Italians, peasants and elites looked for the looming end ¿f the world, and they interpreted their experiences accordingly. During this period, 750 separate editions ¿f the Book ¿f Revelation and commentaries on it appeared. Albrecht Durers famous woodcut tailored the mood according to the needs. This point ¿f view informed both Martin Luther and his audience, which could ¿ften be persuaded to see abuses in the church as a symbol ¿f the end-times. Famine and plague, war and monstrous births, comets and flooding were all disasters foretold in the Book ¿f Revelation as signals ¿f the last days.
The structure of the image
The authors provide a simple structure based on the four horses: white for evidence ¿f the emergence ¿f the Antichrist, red for war, black for famine and starvation, and pale for pestilence and death. The assertion is elemental, the argument direct and quickly taken in. What recommends this study is the wealth ¿f examples, many ¿f which are less well known and drawn from the specialized research ¿f Cunningham and Grell. Others are already well established, such as the eschatological aspects ¿f Luthers thought or assessments ¿f the meaning ¿f extreme suffering during the Thirty Years War (the editors have discarded the apostrophe throughout).
Under the sign ¿f The White Horse we encounter the diverse dramatis personae ¿f Strasbourg, where Melchior Huffman, the Anabaptist leader, hoped to find his spiritual Jerusalem. Many would find it entirely credible that the words ¿f prophetesses heralded the end ¿f the world. Among the learned such as Philipp Melanchthon, Heinrich Bullinger, and John Bale attention to history increased, as though the impending end made it essential to know how human and ecclesiastical polity had developed to its present state. The Protestant search for occult knowledge helped to popularize Paracelsus. Other scientists aided in the hunt for portents in the heavens. One ¿f the authors fundamental convictions is that the humble and illiterate shared the elites expectations. Yet, further study must be done before we can be certain ¿f the reception by illiterates ¿f views articulated by urban and literate men. Hans Sachss works in a modern edition take more than a running meter ¿f shelf-space; he was thus no truly common man. The evidence for peasant and artisan views remains weak.
The advancing Turks were one portent ¿f the Last Judgment. But Christian princes were willing to fight among themselves and had sources ¿f credit to enable them to do so. Most regularly devastating to the peasantry were the predations ¿f the poor men who were recruited as lansquenets or Landesknechten into uncontrolled, mostly unpaid infantries. Devastating episodes such as the Sack ¿f Rome, the Spanish Fury in the Low Countries, and the destruction ¿f Magdeburg are featured as well. Gustavus Adolphus was no Protestant savior.
The Black Horse plies us with details ¿f famine and hunger, which recurred with terrifying frequency. The authors are enthusiastic about the capitalization ¿f agriculture, including enclosure in England; they adopt the position ¿f Ronald Savoy (Famine in Peasant Societies [1986]). They see the displacement to the cities ¿f a growing laboring population as stimulating valuable industries, such as textiles, sugar-refining, brickmaking, and, ¿f course, ship-building (245). They are not nostalgic although people affected at the time might have regarded their uprooting as apocalyptic.
The Pale Horse brings to our attention French pox or syphilis. This illness seemed a perfect recompense for mens (little was said at the time about womens) sins ¿f the flesh. As we know, constructive, compassionate response to this and every rampant disease, as well as famine, was to create, in the cities, houses, and funds for the relief ¿f the most afflicted. Cunningham and Grell attribute early modern disease not, like Alfred Crosby, to the introduction of ¿f germs into a new environment but rather to changes in the environment itself. The vast expansion ¿f the European population made new epidemics unavoidable.
This interdisciplinary book yields many hours ¿f diversion. Its flaws are few. Certain German titles and phrases are not felicitously rendered. The meaning ¿f Hosenteufel, for example, would be better conveyed as The Codpiece Devil than The Tights Devil ; the pastoral harangues ¿f this genre was directed against mens stuffing and displaying the phallic area ¿f their breeches. More fundamental is the relationship between the elite is thought on the apocalypse and that ¿f the masses ¿f unlettered. The printing ¿f almanacs do not, in the end, prove the content ¿f peasant and artisan eschatology. Pro¿f ¿f this is admittedly hard to come by.
The Book of Revelation
Durers impressive dramatization ¿f the Four Horsemen ¿f the Apocalypse serves as the central point ¿f Andrew Cunningham and Ole Peter Grells examination into the religious and social climate ¿f early modern Europe. This book is not so much a history ¿f apocalypticism as it is a nicely constructed overview ¿f contemporary perceptions and experience ¿f crisis in an age characterized by apocalyptic expectations and speculations, specifically the period 1490 to 1648. Grell and Cunninghams previous work on the connections between religious ideology and social and medical history makes them well suited to attempt this broad synthesis.
The Four Horsemen from the Book ¿f Revelation dominated peoples world views, leading them to interpret religious, political, and social crises as indications ¿f the imminence ¿f the End Times and to see Gods warnings embedded in nature and current events. Each ¿f the books core chapters, therefore, tackles contemporary concerns relating to one ¿f the Four Horsemen, beginning with the conquering figure on the White Horse, which had come to be identified with the Second Coming, ¿f Christ. A thorough discussion ¿f the Red Horse ¿f War places special emphasis on the experience ¿f war for both civilians and soldiers in a time ¿f new weapons and military organization. Increase in warfare in an age ¿f religious conflict meant that apocalyptic symbolism was ¿ften paramount, and Cunningham and Grell ¿ffer numerous examples ¿f competing for Protestant and Catholic apocalyptic interpretations ¿f particular events. Under the rubrics ¿f the Black and Pale Horses ¿f Famine and Death, the authors investigate the impact ¿f such factors as food, famine, climate, population shifts, agriculture, health, and disease on daily life and in molding the periods pervasive attitudes.
The books main strengths lie in its broad coverage across confessions and geography, including a large number ¿f Scandinavian sources that frequently are overlooked by Western European scholars. Although the books breadth makes it at times overly impressionistic, the extensive use ¿f eyewitness accounts keeps it anchored in contemporary perceptions. To their credit, Cunningham and Grell usually avoid sensationalizing their analysis with dramatic language (however, is the illustration ¿f Alba on page 159 a figure ¿f truly apocalyptic proportions ?). They recognize that more than one horseman was ¿ften riding at any time, and they carefully show the interconnectedness ¿f chronic and acute crises in shaping the rising and falling apocalyptic fervor. The book is well written and attractively illustrated with over seventy contemporary engravings, woodcuts, and paintings. Upper-level undergraduates and above should find it engaging and accessible.
Combining the entire national collection with work loaned from other European museums, Chester Beattys exhibition ¿f prints by Durer charts the flowering and maturation ¿f this towering Renaissance artist. From his early self-portrait, made when he was 13, Durer displayed prodigious skill and assurance. Even when dealing with religious subjects he makes them his own, whether by adding detail, as in The Virgin and the Dragonfly or by using unusual points ¿f view, as in The Virgin with the Infant Christ and Saint Anne where, unusually, the childs head is turned away from the viewer.
Durer also proved adept at incorporating classical mythology in his work, in prints such as Hercules at the Crossroads, pictured, which suggests the dramatic change in his work after he visits Italy. Even much-reproduced works such as The Four Horsemen, from the Apocalypse series, remain astounding examples ¿f technical virtuosity and extraordinary imagination.
Religion in Durers work
Religion is seen in Durers work. He also prepared a number ¿f detailed watercolors ¿f animals and plants that demonstrate another side ¿f his artist ability. [3] Durer was not only a painter. He was also an expert ¿f engraving in copper and wood. Engravings in the art are prepared by cutting the lines ¿f a design or a picture in a sheet ¿f copper or wood (a plate) using a sharp tool called a burin. The completed drawing on the plate is then covered with printing ink.
Conclusion
Darer was in this world at a time ¿f great calamities all over Europe. Droughts played havoc by damaging crops, resulting in a great food crisis and bereavements. A large number ¿f displaced people wandered from corner to corner. Catastrophic endemics spread through towns and cities and countries experience revolts. A lot ¿f ¿f these tragedies were considered to be caused by the anger ¿f God, and that angels equipped with swords were about to eliminate all the people.
References
Young, Robert. The Four Horsemen ¿f the Apocalypse (Book). Science & Society, 2004, Vol. 68 Issue 1, p117-12.
Alex OConnell, Hare by the grace ¿f God., Times, The (United Kingdom), 2005.
Hudon, William V. The Four Horsemen Ÿf The Apocalypse: Religion, War, Famine, And Death In Reformation Europe (Book). Theological Studies, 2002, Vol. 63 Issue 1, p174, 2p.
Shaw-Eagle, Joanna.By-the-Book Durer. Insight on the News, 2000, Vol. 16 Issue 47, p27, 2/3p, 2c.
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