A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

1500AD
Albrecht Durer stood in front of his easel, empty canvas in front urging him to transform it into a thing of beauty, and he reflected on his life. And his reflections were pleasurable. For he was 28, and life couldn't have been better. He had had a wonderful childhood, as an apprentice to his father who was a goldsmith. Then at 15 he had set off on his own to learn art. He travelled and saw much of Northern Europe, and earned renown as a highly competent engraver and painter. When he was 20, he fell in love, and married his beloved at the age of 23. His fame as an artist grew, and his business flourished. He even undertook a trip to Northern Italy to learn from the Renaissance masters themselves. He travelled widely and learnt many new techniques, and by the time he returned, he was being hailed as one of Northern Europe's greatest artists. Even he couldn't have painted a prettier picture than that of his life.

And yet today as he stood, brush in hand, one of humanity's oldest desires now manifested and took firm grip of his mind. It had ruined many before. Many had perished in search of it. Some had found it too, often at great costs. But on this day, Albrecht Durer was not going to be defeated. His brush raced across the white sheet, every line inspired. His paints glowed with never seen before lustre. Time stood still as Albrecht Durer painted. Creation. The creation of beauty, where hitherto lay a blank canvas. The creation of something where there existed naught before. In a few days he had achieved what he had set out to do. In front of him lay a portrait, more radiant than any he had done before, than any he would ever do since. More lifelike than life itself. And then in one corner, Durer wrote the following words-

"Thus I, Albrecht Duerer from Nuremburg, painted myself with indelible colours at the age of 28 years."

This article is not a study of Albrecht Durer and his art. I am not qualified in any way to do that. It does not even aim to make a technical analysis of this particular painting. Anybody who is interested in knowing more details about his art or this painting are encouraged to refer to other sources for the relevant information. What this article aims to convey however is my own personal reaction to this painting, my own feelings about it. And in some ways, that is all that is important to me. For I feel art exists only for the sake of the beholder, and it is his impression that matters most. I am not vastly knowledgeable in the intricacies of artistic technique, mainly because I myself have no ability in painting, and so I am not capable of judging the greatness of this painting. Yet this painting, ever since I first saw it, has made an indelible mark upon my psyche. And so I write about it.

Immortality! From the very dawn of humanity, many have strived, often in vain, to achieve it. From the primitive cave man preserving his hand prints on cave walls, to the Pharaos and their great pyramids to safely convey them to their afterlife, from the mysterious alchemists poring over their boiling test tubes in search of the elusive elixir of life, to the hearty adventurers setting of in quest of the Holy Grail to the modern day researchers in cloning and cryogenic preservation, many have searched far and wide. Many have dedicated their entire lives to its quest. In 1500, in a small studio in Nuremberg, Albrecht Durer went in search of it. And found it. And so I write of him today.

The preservation of the body is not really the major necessity of immortality. The existence of a person on Earth is for a large part due to his perceived existence in the eyes of others. A man exists as long as people talk of him. And after he dies, they soon forget about him. However there are some who, by virtue of their achievements on earth, manage to remain in the minds of men long after their bodies have perished. Their creations, be it in the field of art or music or literature or science or, for that matter, in political or religious fields, remain as monuments to their life, and thereby grant them with a sense of immortality. Albrecht Durer was one of them. But there were many others, many perhaps far greater, whose images have remained in far more indelible colours. Yet why do I talk only of Durer? What differentiates him from the rest?

To answer this question, we have to go back in time to 1484, when Durer was still a kid, learning art under the guidance of his father. One of earliest pictures of his which survives today is a self portrait of his, in the corner of which he wrote-

“This I drew, using a mirror; it is my own likeness, in the year 1484, when I was still a child-Albrecht Durer.”

This discovery, that his skill in art could be used to preserve his present state in the form of a painting for posterity, marked the beginning of Durer's fascination with portraits. What followed were three of the greatest portraits the world has ever seen, culminating in his masterpiece at the age of 28. In 1493, at the age of 22, he painted 'Self Portrait with Sea Holly', which was intended as a gift for his beloved. He tries to depict himself at his most beautiful, and in his hand he holds a Sea Holly, which was used as an aphrodisiac. The inscription on the picture reads-

"My affairs will go as ordained on high"

His beloved appears to have been won over for they were soon married. After marriage, Durer embarked upon a trip of North Italy, where he came into direct contact with the Renaissance masters of the time, and learnt about their techniques. This experience he celebrated in his next great portrait, 'Self Portrait with Landscape', in 1498. He appears in the portrait to be well off and contented with life. The landscape in the background is both a celebration of the many places he had been to, as well as a demonstration of his mastery of the Italian Renaissance painting techniques.

The canvas was now set for his crowning achievement. For Durer's paintings had achieved almost everything. They had earned him fame and fortune and love and the opportunity to see the world. And he in turn had captured his success for posterity on his canvas. But now he wanted more. He wanted his canvas to capture more than just his success. He wanted them to capture his very soul, and grant it immortality.

Many years later, in 1890, an Irishman by the name of Oscar Wilde would talk about the transfer of a man's soul into a painting. In his novel, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', the protagonists soul is exchanged with the unchanging portrait. Hence, he appears to be unaffected by all of life's turmoils and upheavals, while his portrait reflects the corruption and moral decay of his soul. At the age of 28, Durer wanted to do just that-transfer a part of him into a portrait, such that it would live forever. Many artists before him had achieved immortality due to the sheer genius of their work. Many would in the future. Many a portrait had been painted or would be painted which would be regarded as of higher artistic value. What however is unique about Durer is that he is one of the only artists I know who deliberately set out to achieve immortality, and succeeded. His portrait was not made with an aim of gaining any monetary profit from it, nor was it a breakthrough in artistic technique. It was painted purely with an aim of using his talents to immortalize himself. And this idea of painting such a self portrait is rare in the world of art. The Renaissance masters rarely painted self portraits, as a result of which, the only portrait that exists of Leonardo's is a pencil sketch, while Michaelangelo appeared as a minor character, usually a damned soul, in a few of his paintings. Rembrandt and Van Gogh painted great portraits, but they aimed more at capturing a moment of their lives, and their feelings at that moment, for posterity. Velasquez, who many regard as the master of the portrait form, has a much grander portrait of his servant than himself. Salvadore Dali inserted his likeness in most of his paintings, but inspite of his great ego, he never painted a truly great self-portrait. Somehow most great artists preferred to use their talents either for monetary gains, or to express an opinion, or preserve a moment, or quite often, for the sake of art itself. Durer, on the contrary, wanted to use his ability to create a likeness of him which would last forever, undimmed in it's brilliance as he grew old, withered, and died. Centuries later, people would be able to look at it, and feel Durer's joy in life, and desire to live forever. And as they did so, his dream would become a reality. He would truly become immortal.

And so was born this painting.

'Self-portrait With Fur Trimmed Coat', as the work is commonly called, is one of the greatest portraits the world has ever seen. It is a perfect amalgam of the Dutch and Italian painting traditions, and is carefully planned and executed on the basis of numerological and geometric considerations (For further details, refer here). Besides the inscription in the corner, and the AD monogram, the other most noticeable feature in the painting is the resemblance of the face to that of Christ. Initially this would seem to be heretical. However, a study of Durer's numerous other paintings reveals a large number of paintings with religious themes, which have been executed with great feeling and knowledge of the subjects. Hence it is unlikely that Durer was motivated by heretical, or egotistic ideas. There are several theories about the reason for the similarities between the faces. One theory claims that Durer had deliberately painted himself in the guise of a 'saviour' as the years prior to the turn of the century had been strife with rumours of a supposed Armageddon, and so he wanted to mark the beginning of the new century with a painting that depicted that God's blessings still lay on humanity. However the other theory is more popular, and more beautiful. It claims that the face of Christ had been created by artists themselves, so it wasn't blasphemous to depict oneself in a similar manner. God was the source of the artists talent. And so Durer decided to paint himself in the image of God in order to express his gratitude towards God for his artistic talents. The painting represents the belief that man is created in the image of God, and that all his talents stem from God himself. Thus it is perhaps one of the most beautiful expressions of thanksgiving to God that the world has ever seen.

So now, having come almost to the end of the article, there remains only one more thing to write about-why I wrote this article in the first place. I first came across this painting around a year ago, and since then I have been captivated by it, and also perhaps motivated by it. So naturally the question arose in my mind that since I have gained so much from the painting, then don't I have a responsibility to repay something back to it? The answer was yes. And so this article was born.

There is in my opinion only one way to honour the portrait of Albrecht Durer, and that is by trying to further the cause for which it was originally painted, to in some measure realize the dream that lies enmeshed in the paints. Albrecht Durer, in 1500, dreamed he would be immortal, that centuries later, he would be remembered and talked about. This article is my humble attempt to further this dream. Your reading of this article is a means of furthering this dream. That was my primary aim. But the influence of the painting still lies upon me. And so somewhere, in the back of my mind, there is a small hope that you have enjoyed reading this, and perhaps many after you will enjoy reading it too, and so I, Siddhartha Banerjee, will too have taken a small step....towards immortality.

That is my dream.

Thank you.