Drawing From Art: Learning from Albrecht Durer

Visual arts, such as painting, drawing and photography, frequently seek to create three dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface. This aspect of the art gives the paper, canvas or other surface depth, eye-appeal and life.

Attempts at three-dimensionality in drawing and painting are exhibited as far back as the stone-age. During prehistoric times, cave paintings illustrate the artists’ desires to recreate some spatial relationships by drawing animals and other subjects with a number of shadings and interrelationships among forms. Later, the ancient Greek and Roman art often idealized realistic human anatomy and provided depth to visuals to allow their heroes and gods to appear existent. The Middle Ages came after the Classical age of Greek and Roman art. During the Middle Ages, form was eschewed: figures were flattened to direct attention to iconic spiritualism over realism. Thus, while the Classical art of Greece and Rome had passionately presented figures in plausible space portraying heroic activities, the Middle Ages effectively flattened figures to provide symbolic religious visuals to emphasize the religious thought and life the Church espoused.

And, hundreds of years later, artists of the Renaissance, a rebirth of Classicism, painted with greater depth and perspective that contrasted with the flatness of the art of the prior Middle Ages. From the early time of the Renaissance, forms assumed three-dimensionality and there was some return to Classism. Although there was still a preponderance of religious art, the subjects became more life-like and assumed new-found interrelationships with each other as the Renaissance evolved. As time went on, textural elements were added to further create depth and interest for the eye. These textures have always fascinated me. 

The Italian Renaissance was an important part of my university and graduate school curriculums. Of course, there were other countries in which a rebirth of Classical art was taking place, but the main college focus was the Italian Renaissance. However, it was during my college years that I “discovered” Albrecht Durer, a prominent German painter of the Northern Renaissance, who was in touch with the Italian masters, such as da Vinci, Raphael and other greats driving the “new” Renaissance concepts of three-dimensionality. What impressed me most were the wonderful textures, including cross-hatch shadings and folds that uniquely transformed Durer’s engravings, etchings and drawings into 3-D masterworks. The lessons I learned from Durer were complex and I still study his work for a better understanding of space and form created by texture and shading.

This pen and ink study of pillow-cases by Durer greatly impressed and influenced me. The folds and shadings of a completely ordinary subject, bed pillows, was elevated to a brilliant three-dimensional visual through its form and tones. Albrecht Durer enhanced his art by breathing life into flat surfaces. This technique particularly resonated with me when I began to photograph still life subjects. 

When I saw these roses, the texture of the petals intrigued me. The flowers took on a three-dimensional quality with their unusual patterned surface and semi-tight form. I wanted to give the still life even more texture without distracting the eye from the roses and Durer’s use of texture and tone gave me the idea of fabric folds. Explicitly Durer’s pillowcases promoted my use of a seemingly careless draped table on which to place the pitcher of roses. Although the draping appears casual, it is very carefully done to mimic the artfulness of my still life. 

Lesson learned from the Master Albrecht Durer: Texture and tone create an image the eye may enter.