“The Young Hare“ – Art Review

This artwork “The Young Hare” was created by Albrecht Dürer, a 16th century Northern Renaissance artist, his artworks are an important example for modern observational drawing. The artwork was composed of both water colour and body colour on Albrecht Dürer’s sketchbook, after he came back from a trip to Italy in 1502.

In the centre of the watercolour paper, locates the main focus of the painting a realistic drawing of a rabbit. By using different lighting and texture techniques, he created a strong contrast between the light and dark pelt. Natural lighting coming from the top right corner of the artwork, gives the art a more natural perspective giving the artwork a more observational characteristic.

Dürer also applies great detail and includes strong emphases on proportions, mainly because the 14th century realism background Dürer had. There is a palpable difference in the textures of the fur, caw, eyes. Theses details gave Albrecht Dürer that admiration from later generations by how he captures the sparks of life.

Albrecht Dürer used observation in deciding on the colours, although brown was a basic colour the varied hues and tone allows the hare to become more realistic. Dürer used the method of mixing watercolour pigments with an opaque white pigment in a watercolour vehicle, also known as body colour or gouache, to develop fine details.

This particular artwork is a great example of Dürer artworks where demonstrates a change in the perspective in the art world. At the same time this artwork show us how Dürer studies the form and values of the rabbit, he used the sketch as a model for wood carving. “And since geometry is the right foundation of all painting, I have decided to teach its rudiments and principles to all youngster eager for art.”(Aldrecht Durer) Since Durer is so focused on realism, he used the principle of geometry to find the proportions during sketches and sculptures. “And since geometry is the right foundation of all painting, I have decided to teach its rudiments and principles to all youngster eager for art.”(Aldrecht Durer) Since Durer is so focused on realism, he used the principle of geometry to find the proportions during sketches and sculptures.

In the 16th century, Albrecht Dürer experienced the Renaissance, the culture movement, “the period of European history between the 14th and 17th centuries when there was a new interest in science and in ancient art and literature especially in Italy.” By doing so he not only had the fundamental observational talent, he also gained experience by immersing himself in Renaissance culture of precision and scientific accuracy. One of the important event happened in Italy, was he learnt skill from Jacopo Dé Barbari, an expert of human proportion, and applied his own knowledge on top of new skills he learn and developed new maturation of Renaissance -anatomy. Although gaining most of his knowledge from Barbari, Dürer had to do self experimentation using different subjects in different light. After interacting with Italian influences in the work travelled to Italy, his style merged with Northern Renaissance which became uniquely Dürer. He has developed a perspective of a wider trend toward realism, advancing in other techniques for example the studying of lights, shadow and human/animal anatomy, revealing a brand new sights for beauty of nature.

Citations

"Albrecht Durer Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore. Web. 2 Feb. 2015. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/albrecht_durer.html>.

"Albrecht Durer | Biography - German Artist." Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. <http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/174214/Albrecht-Durer>

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