The Sea Monster
The Sea Monster (German: Das Meerwunder) is a c. 1498–1500 copper engraving by the German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. It shows a voluptuous naked woman riding on the back of a merman, a male creature who is half-man, half-fish. The man wears a beard and antlers, while his lower body is covered in scales.[1] The woman has seemingly been snatched and dragged away from the river bank; her companions are shown scrambling out of the water in panic, raising their arms in protest or lying down weeping. The woman wears an extravagant Milanese headdress[2] and her mouth is open in a cry as she looks back at her friends in the distance.[3] Despite the woman's gaze back at the bank and her open mouth, her relaxed Venus like pose suggests to some critics that she is not overly concerned with her plight.[1]
For this reason writer Jonathan Jones described the engraving as a "troubling, wondrous image of the erotic",[1] while historian Walter L. Strauss notes that her abduction may be a device to legitimise her nudity.[4] A fortress is set on the rock high above the river; elements of its structure echo the Kaiserburg in Nuremberg.[2]
This engraving is one of Dürer's early attempts at anatomy and proportion, completed before he was able to arrive at what he saw as the canon of human beauty in his 1504 Adam and Eve. The image can be approximately dated due to a similar nude study held in the Albertina in Vienna which Dürer signed and dated 1501.[3] A well regarded Mannerist copy was completed c. 1550 in Germany, which shows the scene in mirror image. The copy is signed IoHann Von Essen.[3]
It is not known which specific classical or contemporary tale Dürer sought to illustrate; he is known to have synthesised different sources and bring motifs together in a single image. The abduction of a woman by a water-god is one of the oldest Greek mythological conceptions and a subject that fascinated men through to the Renaissance.[5] Dürer adds a layer of complexity to the scene in that the woman does not seem too upset at her fate.[6]
Vasari gave an early description of the work, through a vague description of a picture of a nymph set in the ancient world. Recent interpretations mention the abduction of Scylla by the sea demon Glaucus, or the abduction of Hesione by a monster. Further speculation centres on Anna Perenna, who escapes from Aeneas with the aid of a horned water-god.[7] Art historian Jane Campbell Hutchison suggests that the Milanese headdress may refer to the Lombard queen Theodelinda, who was also abducted by a sea monster.[2] The horned Tritonesque figure echoes a description given by Poggio Bracciolini of a sea monster that had terrorised the Adriatic coast in the early 15th century.[8]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c Jonathan, Jones. "Divine inspiration". The Guardian, 30 November 2002. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
- ^ a b c Campbell Hutchison, 35
- ^ a b c Nürnberg, 36
- ^ Strauss, Walter L. "The complete engravings, etchings, and drypoints of Albrecht Dürer". Dover Publications, 1973. ISBN 0-486-22851-7
- ^ Brion, 153
- ^ Brion, 157
- ^ Campbell Hutchison, 50
- ^ Strauss, 46
References
- Brion, Marcel. Dürer. London: Thames and Hudson, 1960
- Campbell Hutchison, Jane. Albrecht Dürer, A Guide to Research. New York: Garland, 2000
- Minott, Charles Ilsley. "Albrecht Dürer: The Early Graphic Works". Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, Volume 30, No. 2, 1971
- Nürnberg, Verlag Hans Carl. Dürer in Dublin: Engravings and woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer. Chester Beatty Library, 1983
- v
- t
- e
- Portrait Diptych of Dürer's Parents (1490)
- Portrait of Frederick III of Saxony (1496)
- St. Jerome in the Wilderness (c. 1496)
- Portrait of Dürer's Father at 70 (1497)
- Haller Madonna/Lot and His Daughters (c. 1498)
- Lamentation of Christ (Nuremberg) (attributed, c. 1498)
- Hercules Killing the Stymphalian Birds (1500)
- Seven Sorrows Polyptych (c. 1500)
- Lamentation of Christ (Munich) (c. 1500)
- Jabach Altarpiece (1503–1504)
- Adoration of the Magi (1504)
- Bagnacavallo Madonna (before 1505)
- Christ Among the Doctors (1506)
- Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman (1505)
- Feast of the Rosary (1506)
- Avarice (1507)
- Adam and Eve (1507)
- Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1508)
- The Suicide of Lucretia (1518)
- Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (1519)
- Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I (1519)
- Portrait of Jakob Fugger (c. 1520)
- Portrait of Bernhart von Reesen (1521)
- Saint Jerome in His Study (1521)
- The Four Apostles (1526)
- Portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher (1526)
- Portrait of Johann Kleberger (1526)
- Portrait of Jakob Muffel (1526)
- Self-Portrait at the Age of 13 (drawing, 1484)
- Portrait of the Artist Holding a Thistle (1493)
- Self-Portrait at 26 (1498)
- Self-Portrait at 28 (1500)
engravings
- List of woodcuts, engravings
- The Holy Family with the Dragonfly (1495)
- The Holy Family with Three Hares (1496)
- Apocalypse (1498)
- Saint Michael Fighting the Dragon (1498)
- The Four Witches (1497)
- The Sea Monster (1498–1500)
- Saint Sebastian at the Column (1500)
- Visitation (1503)
- Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate (1504)
- Great Passion (1497–1510)
- Life of the Virgin (1510–1511)
- Small Passion (1511)
- Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)
- Melencolia I (1514)
- Saint Jerome in His Study (1514)
- Triumphal Arch (1515)
- Rhinoceros (1515)
- Large Triumphal Carriage (1522)
- Portrait of Erasmus (1526)
watercolours
- Young Hare (1502)
- Great Piece of Turf (1503)
- Madonna of the Animals (c. 1503)
- Praying Hands (c. 1508)
- Wing of a European Roller (1512)
- Portrait of the Artist's Mother at the Age of 63 (1514)
- Head of a Walrus (1514)
- The Virgin and Child with a Flower on a Grassy Bench (c. 1503)
- Dresden Altarpiece (c. 1496–1497/1503–1504)
- Paumgartner Altarpiece (c. 1500)
- Jabach Altarpiece (c. 1503–1504)
- Heller Altarpiece (c. 1508) (with Matthias Grünewald)
- Adoration of the Trinity (1511)
- Alte Pinakothek (Self-Portrait) (2000 photograph)
- Dürer (crater)