Dürer’s Journeys at the National Gallery – what the critics are saying
To call this major new show ‘baffling’ would be an understatement
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) had a “high opinion of himself”, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. This was, after all, an artist who at the age of 28 depicted himself as Christ in a marvellous self-portrait that reeks of “preening, perfumed self-regard”.
Yet his “arrogance” was well-justified. Dürer was a genuine “Renaissance man”: one of history’s most virtuosic painters as well as an exquisite draughtsman, and a pioneering printmaker whose efforts in the medium did much to transform the way art was disseminated.
He was a polymath and, unusually for the era, also an inveterate traveller who made a number of “significant” journeys across Germany, Italy and Flanders, sketching the people, animals and sights he encountered, while recording his observations in his journals.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
His adventures are the subject of this “excellent” new show, the first major Dürer exhibition to be held in Britain for nearly 20 years. It brings together a selection of Dürer’s paintings, prints, drawings and writings, as well as a number of thrilling works by his artistic contemporaries, revealing how his exposure to foreign culture allowed him to create a remarkable synthesis of styles from northern and southern Europe, while also making his own presence felt far from his native Nuremberg. It’s a “clever, engaging” approach to an artist whose images “retain their power to astonish”.
Dürer was nothing if not “intrepid”, said Laura Cumming in The Observer. He twice made the journey across the Alps “in treacherous conditions, staying in icy mountain shelters”; he lived in Venice during a cholera outbreak, and narrowly survived a storm at sea when he travelled to see a beached whale in Zeeland.
Along the way, he recorded some truly “astonishing sights”: “soaring comets”, “fantastical castles”, a hoard of Aztec gold brought back to Brussels by conquistadors. Yet inexplicably, little of this features in the exhibition. To call it “baffling” would be an understatement. The show begins with two works that are not even by Dürer, and only gets more confusing.
For every marvel we do see – his print of Saint Jerome and an anatomically incorrect lion; the astonishing Melencolia I, in which a “morose angel” cradles her head amidst a “clutter of allegorical symbols” – there is a lesser work by another artist. The show offers “no clear chronology”, “barely any discernible narrative”, and no climax.
Indeed, the whole thing feels disappointingly dry. In some ways, the exhibition’s unsensational tone is commendable, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. The absence of patronising wall texts is a mercy, and “traditionalists” will applaud its “no-nonsense dive into art history”.
You notice countless details Dürer gleaned from his travels: he depicts the Whore of Babylon as “an actual Venetian sex worker” in a 1498 woodcut, while The Sea Monster imbues Ovid’s telling of Europa and the Bull as a scene from “northern forest folklore”, reflecting his ingenious melding of Germanic and Italian traditions.
Ultimately, though, this “sedate plod” fails “to take you to the heart of Dürer”. You get no sense of what life was like in his time; the “freshness and immediacy” of the artist’s own diaries are nowhere to be found. This “sedate plod” of a show “even made me doubt my adoration of his art”.
National Gallery, London WC2 (nationalgallery.org.uk). Until 27 February
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Is international law falling apart?
Today's Big Question Conflict in Gaza is testing the strength of the two intergovernmental courts in The Hague
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
The Week Junior newsletter
Spark new conversations with your child - every week
By The Week Published
-
'Florida's abortion law leads to "chaos"'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Daniel Wallace's 5 favorite books that should not be forgotten
Feature The author recommends works by Italo Calvino, Evan S. Connell, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 picturesque homes in Arizona
Feature Featuring a glass elevator in Sedona and a grotto waterfall in Paradise Valley
By The Week Staff Published
-
Silversea cruise review: a Central and North American adventure
The Week Recommends An incredible journey featuring cultural exploration, cooking classes, comfort and more
By Yasemen Kaner-White Published
-
Baffin Island: looking for narwhal in Arctic Canada
The Week Recommends An exploration of this island between mainland Canada and Greenland is ideal for the adventurous at heart
By The Week UK Published
-
Knife: Salman Rushdie's 'mesmeric memoir' of brutal attack
The Week Recommends The author's account of ordeal which cost him his eye is both 'scary and heartwarming'
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sarah Langan recommends 6 women-centric horror books
Feature The horror novelist recommends works by Stephen King, Gillian Flynn, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 spacious homes for car lovers
Feature Featuring a 14-car showroom in Oregon and a Bentley-style apartment in Florida
By The Week Staff Published
-
6 serene homes in Vermont
Features Featuring a four-level Shaker barn in Hartland and a Scandinavian-inspired home in Stowe
By The Week US Published