Head of a Walrus
Head of a Walrus (German: Kopf eines Walrosses) is a 1521 pen drawing painted in watercolour by the German artist Albrecht Dürer, now in the British Museum, London.[1] At the time the walrus' main European population was around Scandinavia, and they were exotic to inland Europeans. The work reflects Dürer fascination with what he perceived as unusual animals, with similarly intentioned works including depictions of lions and rhinoceros. The drawing was created as part of a larger series of 167 drawings of quadrupeds.[1]
The drawing is generally considered as not successful;[2] and is viewed as curious attempted depiction that is neither aesthetically pleasing nor anatomically true to life. Art historians assume the artist drew it from memory having viewed a dead example during a 1520 visit to Zeeland to see a stranded whale which had decomposed before his arrival.[3] Referring to the depiction departure for nature, Durer's animal has been described as "amusing...it looks more like a hairless puppy with tusks. When Dürer drew from life his accuracy was unquestionable, but he had only briefly seen a walrus, and had only fleeting memory and an elaborate verbal description from which to reconstruct the image".[4]
The drawing is inscribed with the words "1521 / Das dosig thÿr van dem jch do das hawbt / contrefett hab ist gefangen worden / jn die niderlendischen see vnd / was XII ellen lang / brawendisch mit für fusse", which were for many years loosely translated to English as "1521, That stupid (or dozy) animal of which I have portrayed the head was caught in the Netherlands sea and was twelve brabant ells long with four feet", although the interpretation of "dosig thÿr" as stupid or dozy is no longer necessarily held, and it may have that the text instead should be inferred as "dasig" or "hiesig", as in "represented here".[1]
The "AD" monograph and dating are later additions by another artist.[2]
See also
Notes
References
- Berger, John. Albrecht Dürer: Watercolours and Drawings. Taschen GmbH, 1996. ISBN 978-3-8228-8575-8
- Brion, Marcel. Dürer. London: Thames and Hudson, 1960.
- Crowe, Norman; Laseau, Paul. Visual Notes for Architects and Designers. Wiley, 1986. ISBN 978-0-4712-8959-3
- v
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- 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)