Christ Among the Doctors (Dürer)
| Christ among the Doctors | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Albrecht Dürer |
| Year | 1506 |
| Type | Oil on poplar panel |
| Dimensions | 65 cm × 80 cm (26 in × 31 in) |
| Location | Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
Christ among the Doctors is an oil painting by Albrecht Dürer, dating to 1506, now in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain. The work dates to Dürer's sojourn in Venice, and was executed (according to the inscription Opus quinque dierum, meaning "Made in five days") hastily while he was working on the Feast of the Rosary altarpiece.
The topic is the Finding in the Temple episode from Jesus' childhood, found in the Gospel of Luke. The subject had been already treated by Dürer in a woodcut of the Life of the Virgin series and in a panel of the Seven Sorrows Polyptych. However, in the Venetian work the German artist adopted a dense composition of half-figures, focussing on faces and hands, which was introduced by Andrea Mantegna in his Presentation of Christ (c. 1454, Berlin) and present in all Northern Italian schools including Venice.<ref-name=Panofsky114>Erwin Panofsky (1971) [1945]. The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer (PDF). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 114f. ISBN 0-691-00303-3.</ref>
The characters occupy the whole panel submerged in a dark background intensifying the tense atmosphere. Here, the young Jesus is besieged by six philosophers surrounding him, arranged on at least four different planes, each with different skin texture, pose and expression like character studies. They stand in stark contrast to the entirely soft and restraint appearance of the child, which stands steadfast in the central axis of the picture debating freely and enumarating his arguments with his fingers, while the scibes keep to the books in their hands ready to cite from them.
The oldest of the philosophers right next to Jesus refutes his thoughts even with his imposing hands that interrupt the child's argumentative gesture. These two pairs of hands form a kind of ornament in the center of the picture, summorizing the panel's theme in an abstract way. The gesturing hands were a characteristic Italian motif for the representation of scholars and teachers. The head of the oldest shown in profile "can hardly be imagined without some knowledge" of the caricature drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, and with the contrasting depiction of "extreme beauty and extreme ugliness" Dürer may as well has been following Leonardo's instruction in his Trattato della Pintura.<ref-name=Panofsky114>
The man on the lower left has a cartouche on his beret, a custom of the Pharisees. [citation needed] The one on the opposite side is perhaps a citation of Giovanni Bellini, with whom Dürer became acquainted with on his first stay in Venice in the mid-1490s. Dürer very much respected Bellini, who was also the brother-in-law of Mantegna. Mantegna died in Mantua in 1506, and there are no sources that would confirm Dürer ever met him personally, but through Bellini he most probably learned about his work. Bellini himself actually painted a version of Presentation at the Temple, which is considered a family portrait. Though both panels have all personage and the beholder on equal height, whereas Dürer tilted the ground plane resulting in a perspectival view from slightly above, gaining him depth of space, so he could straighten out the crowded scene and emphasise the drama.
According to some sources, the panel of Jesus among the Doctors could have been given to Bellini. In the latter's house it was perhaps seen by Lorenzo Lotto, who used one of the figures in the painting for his Madonna with Child between Sts. Flavian and Onuphrius now in the Borghese Gallery.
See also[edit]
Sources[edit]
- Costantino Porcu, ed. (2004). Dürer. Milan: Rizzoli.
- Martina Sauer (2021), Affordance as a Method in Visual Cultural Studies Based on Theory and Tools of Vitality Semiotics. A historiographic and comparative study of Formal Aesthetics, Iconology, and Affordance using the example of Albrecht Dürer's Christ Among the Doctors from 1506, New York and São Paulo: Art Style Art & Culture international Magazine 7, pp. 11–37
