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Philosophy and Culture
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A. Durer's "Apocalypse": an attempt at a philosophical interpretation of the space-time problems of the cycle of engravings

Bagrovnikov Nikolai Adrianovich

Doctor of Philosophy

Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, History and Theory of Social Communication, Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University named after N.A. Dobrolyubov

603155, Russia, g. Nizhnii Novgorod, ul. Minina, 31a

bagrovnikov@mail.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 
Fedorova Marina

ORCID: 0000-0003-4750-5981

PhD in Philosophy

Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, History and Theory of Social Communication, Dean of the Higher School of Social Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University named after N.A. Dobrolyubov

603155, Russia, g. Nizhnii Novgorod, ul. Minina, 31 a, aud. 1204

marafed2204@mail.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 

DOI:

10.7256/2454-0757.2023.6.40701

EDN:

VZBZEI

Received:

10-05-2023


Published:

20-05-2023


Abstract: Within the framework of this article, the authors analyze the cycle of engravings "Apocalypse" by Albrecht Durer in the context of the categories of space and time that have developed in the history and philosophy of culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The metaphysical essence of time, defined by Christian eschatology, found its vivid embodiment in the activities of many figures of artistic culture of that era. Apocalyptic moods, which largely determine the consciousness of people of the Reformation era, were also inherent in A. Durer. The cycle of engravings "Apocalypse" in many ways should be considered as the quintessence of these moods and a reflection of the image of death that develops in this era. Space also acquires metaphysical characteristics, becomes heterogeneous, emotionally colored. The authors conclude that in the "Apocalypse" there is a mixed (and therefore very peculiar) interpretation of the category of time and space. It clearly shows the transition of the space-time representations of the Middle Ages to the ideas of time and space inherent in the New Time. It is also possible that we have before us one of the variants of the Renaissance mastery of the categories of time and space in the art of Europe. Attention is drawn to its openness and conscious demonstrativeness, because two artistic systems interact with each other on an equal footing; their stylistic potential and expressive means are used entirely, with full dedication and as a result, with maximum impressive force.


Keywords:

Durer, Apocalypse, space, time, image of death, Reformation, chiliasm, art, Middle Ages, Renaissance

This article is automatically translated. You can find original text of the article here.

Interest in the personality and legacy of Albrecht Durer is of lasting importance, which is determined by the scale of his genius, as well as his contribution to the development of world artistic culture. There are a huge number of works devoted to the life, work and analysis of the works of Albrecht Durer, including the famous cycle of engravings "Apocalypse" [for example, among the foreign bibliography we can recall 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18]. Among the domestic works, I would like to mention the classic works of A.M. Mironov, D.S. Nedovich, A. A. Sidorova, V. M. Nevezhina, A. Durus, M.Ya. Libman, Ts.G Nesselstraus, etc. [19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28].

Currently, interest in Durer's work is only growing. Durer's diaries are being republished in Russian [see, for example, 29]. In 2022, the reproduction of the 1511 edition of the album of his engravings "Apocalypse" took place, provided with detailed comments and accompanying articles [30].

The works of modern researchers are mainly of an art or biographical nature [31,32, 33, 34], although the problem of the evolution of Albrecht Durer's views, his attitude to socio-political and religious issues is also comprehended in the scientific literature [35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40] .

One of the features of modern research on the artist is the appearance of a large number of works with an innovative perspective of the problem. For example, there are works of a medical plan whose task is to make a diagnosis based on the analysis of prints and paintings by Durer [see, 41, 42]. In addition, increasingly, the appeal to the life of Durer and his works began to take place in the format of popular science publications, such as "the novel with the wrong side", combining psychological sketches, the genre of historical investigation and documentary materials [43] or in the format of podcasts (spoken audio recordings distributed on electronic and audiobook services) [44, 45, 46, 46].

In five years, the whole world will remember Albrecht Durer in connection with the 500th anniversary of his death, which will lead to even greater scientific activity in the field of art history and history. However, in our opinion, it is possible and necessary to consider Durer not only as a brilliant artist, engineer, but also as a thinker whose views will help to reveal the complex dialectical interaction of two contradictory historical phenomena: the Renaissance and the Reformation. An interesting fact is that Durer, who wrote a lot about the problems of art, tried to be careful in his statements on religion and politics. Although he was a direct observer of the events of the Reformation and the Peasant War.

A number of researchers have already noted the absence of direct, unambiguous statements by Durer regarding the Reformation and the events that followed it [36, p. 110]. That is why, when analyzing the evolution of the artist's worldview, there is a dual impression: on the one hand, Durer sympathized with Luther at the beginning of the Reformation, but later "ceased to share his views" [36, p. 11,]; being a forced person in the matter of choosing customers, Durer often interacted with different people, including opponents of the Reformation; also being a genius as a master, Durer could not share the iconoclastic views of Protestants, although he was positioned as a "good Lutheran" [28, vol. 1, p. 20]. This ambiguity, caution is also reflected in Durer's work. M.Ya. Libman writes about the sympathy that Durer felt for the peasant class, creating "cheerful peasant images" [48, p. 40]. V.I. Kovba, E.A. Chugunov in the "Project of a monument to a sad peasant pierced by a sword" see the artist's sympathy for the rebels and the defeated to the peasants [36, pp. 115-116]. A. Durus criticizes the artist for his caution (especially in the process of "three godless artists"), for prudence, adaptation to "German insignificance" and the lack of "revolutionary fire" [49, pp. 65-70].

In our opinion, such caution was justified by the complexity of the historical period, but many of Durer's ideas, views, and worldview positions (for example, on personality, fate, political power, and the peasantry) were reflected in his paintings and graphics [see, for example, 36, 39].

His works are full of allegories and secret codes [35, 50, 51], which scientists have yet to decipher. From the point of view of the philosophical interpretation of Durer's works, in our opinion, "Melancholy" (Melancholy I) is considered in the most detail) [32, 52, 53, 54]. However, we are interested in the philosophical significance of the cycle of engravings "Apocalypse". This interest is due to a number of factors: firstly, the events of the XXI century actualized the eschatological aspirations and apocalyptic moods of modern society [55], therefore, this Durer cycle acquires a timeless reading.  The artist raises eternal questions that constantly concern humanity, and not the least among them is the problem of people's responsibility for the fate of the world.

Secondly, a series of woodcuts by Albrecht Durer for the "Revelation of St. John" is rightfully considered one of the most interesting examples of world graphics. This work can be considered as a postulate of the artist's creative maturity. It opens a new chapter in the development of German Renaissance art and is a remarkable monument to the era of the Reformation and the Peasant War. We believe that the pathos of humanism (without which rebirth is unthinkable) and the intensity of passions, exaltation and radicalism of the Reformation were combined in Durer's work (and precisely in the "Apocalypse", in the space-time problems of the cycle).

The main objectives of this article are to present the "Apocalypse" as a kind of outcome in the development of German Renaissance art, to consider its individual structural elements related to spatial and temporal issues and to try to identify the significance of the Durer cycle of engravings in the development of apocalyptic issues and the image of death in world culture.

It is worth emphasizing that almost all researchers studying the spiritual climate of the "Durer era" note the dramatization and exaltation of the themes of dying and the end of time, the flowering of apocalyptic moods [56, 57, 58, 59]. As J. wrote . Delumo, the idea of death, the end of time runs like a red thread through the works of many Renaissance artists, because "death is one of the companions of the Renaissance" [57, p. 404]. At the same time, "the dominant idea is that any pain is finite, that time heals wounds, that Love and other earthly values finally prevail over Death" [59, pp. 29-32]. This sound of thanatological problems took shape in the Renaissance, thanks to the humanistic culture.

The Reformation contributed to the formation of a new image of death, different from that accepted in Catholicism. M. Vovel believes that this image is tragic, because "the salvation-curse dilemma sounds with renewed force in reformation ideas," and it was the Reformation that determined the last surge of an exalted attitude to death, which lasted for a century and a half [58; 59, p. 34].

The Reformation also actualized eschatological elements: "the expectation of the imminent "end of the world" and the inevitable Last Judgment prompted Luther and his associates to seek other salvation than those offered by the tarnished Catholic Church" [60, p. 13]. Chiliasm becomes the cornerstone of the Reformation and the Peasant War, their "fermentation enzyme" [60, p. 19], which determined the cruelty and uncompromising nature of religious transformations.

It is in these conditions that Durer creates his famous cycle of engravings.

Actually, many later saw in the images of the "Apocalypse" a "pre-reformation pamphlet", a reflection of Durer's revolutionary religiosity [16; 61, p. 93], projected on the images of the pope and the emperor.

When contemporaries of the impending Reformation were considering freshly printed sheets. "Apocalypsis cum figuris", they hardly realized what a great artist enters with them into the pantheon of world culture and what epochal, final significance this work has. Very symptomatic and natural is its appearance at a certain historical moment, when Europe became, as it were, on the threshold of the coming revolutionary storms, political cataclysms and social battles. Vague premonitions of change were alarming and frightening. It seemed that "time has run out", that the last hour of humanity is about to strike – the Last Judgment, the light presentation on the eve of 1500 felt like something quite real, inevitable and inescapable. In the German lands, these sentiments manifested themselves especially vividly [60, p.14-16; 61, p. 83].

Durer had a personal, deep experience of apocalyptic moods that accompanied him all his life. So, he describes in his diaries the miracles associated with rumors of the end of the world: "The biggest miracle I have seen in my entire life happened in 1503, when crosses began to fall on many people, and especially many on children. And I saw one of them, of the same shape as I then drew. And he fell on Ayer's maid… And she was so upset about it that she cried and complained a lot, because she was afraid that she would die from it. I also saw a comet in the sky" [28, vol. 1, p. 52]. Durer had apocalyptic dreams, which he not only tried to describe in his diary, but also to depict [28, vol. 1, c, 190].

Durer managed to capture, survive and capture apocalyptic moods (both his own and the era) in powerful, sublime images. He relied on the vast legacy of the past. Book miniatures of the early and mature Middle Ages, German graphics of the XV century, elements of decorative and applied and monumental medieval art, artistic traditions of northern Italy; late Gothic and antiquity, Schongauer and Mantegna - all melted down and merged, forming something great, integral and unified [2, s. 56; 11, p.51, 54-59].

Stylistically artistic synthesis alone, the reduction of related elements and opposites to their unity, allows us to speak about the final meaning of the series. But it is not limited to this. Durer's "Apocalypse" is a work of a SPECIAL kind and its meaning is ambiguous.

First of all, Durer's "Apocalypse" is the result of the development of German art during the XV century. As E. Panofsky noted, woodcuts of nameless predecessors became "raw materials" for Durer [11, p. 53]. However, the master, in modern terms, creates a truly innovative project. Moreover, this "Apocalypse" of Durer marks a qualitative leap in the development of late Gothic, which opened up to her, as a style, very fruitful prospects [16, s. 5].

In the next thirty years, the results of this leap will manifest themselves in the works of outstanding masters of the German Renaissance: Grunewald, Hans Baldung, Georg Ratgeb, Albrecht Altdorfer.

Durer's woodcuts show that the late Gothic acquired the ability to dialogue, became open to assimilation and processing of the artistic traditions of the Italian Renaissance.

The style of "Apocalypse" shows that the progressive elements of late Gothic, which gradually matured in the works of such masters as Lukas Moser, Stefan Lochner, Hans Multcher and took the most complete and mature forms from Konrad Witz, Martin Schongauer and Mikhail Pacher, are entering their heyday.

It probably makes sense to say that the "Apocalypse" is the first page that opens the art of the German Renaissance.

But the most important thing seems to us that the "Apocalypse" is the expression of the highest point in the development of the eschatological traditions of the Middle Ages. We can say that he, in fact, completes them: he gives them the last and most mature incarnation in the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern era. This leaves an imprint on the entire series, on its structural elements, and among them, the categories of time and space.

Christian eschatological problems have determined the perception of time and earthly space in human representations.  So, within the limits achievable for the sensory perception of an ordinary person, there are special areas of him that have a sacred character, more strongly connected with the upper world. Time also had a metaphysical essence determined by the absolute character of God, his perfection and immutability [62, pp.31-36; 63, p. 45]

In the context of the analysis of works of fine art, the category "time" implies a combination of the concepts of "perception time" and "artist time". The time of perception depends on value attitudes and is formed from the so-called "spectator's place" and "forms of perception". In our case, the value and worldview attitudes of the viewer, whether they are Durer's contemporaries or our contemporaries, are based on current apocalyptic ideas.

The artist's time is a synthesis of the development of the plot in time, ways and means of transmitting the temporal beginning, as well as a reflection of modernity.

From the interrelation of the concepts of "time of perception" and "time of the artist", as B.R. Whipper points out, a peculiar concept of time is formed, characteristic of the worldview of a particular epoch [64, pp. 135-136]. The category of space is formed by "the space of the work" and "the space of the viewer", which arises during the dialogue between the viewer and the work of art.

Durer's work is characterized by high narrative. It is achieved by almost verbatim transmission of the text by means of woodcut, extreme clarity, conciseness and concreteness of the image. No wonder B. Purishev emphasized the proximity of the artistic language of Durer's prints to the aesthetics of German literature of the XV-XVI centuries. He pointed out the historically established connection of German graphics with literature and the outstanding importance of the joint existence of these types of arts, mutually enriching and complementing each other [65, p. 238].

The comparison of the two "Revelations" - the Gospel and Durer's - testifies to the artist's serious, thoughtful and, most importantly, active attitude to the text of the prophecy. Durer sought to capture and present the source as a whole, to capture the very essence, the very spirit of it, to fully express the literary merits of the work. At the same time, he is not just an illustrator.

In "Apocalypse", for the first time, Durer's characteristic tendency to synthesize and generalize is clearly manifested. And he translates the language of the text into the woodcut system with amazing skill.

The rigid division of the predecessor sheets into two types of lines (contour and hatching) disappears in Durer. As S. Murashkina writes, "for the first time woodcut begins to be thought of not as a simple image of objects with a black outline on the white surface of the sheet, but as a kind of integral organism, ... where any fragment ... is subordinated to a common plan" [61, p. 89]. New techniques have made it possible to create a special "space of the work", to endow it with a sacred meaning: the white sections of paper left behind begin to shine, sparkle, representing flames, then bright unattainable distances, then a figure illuminated by bright light.

Durer carefully selects individual episodes and details. He omits some chapters altogether, combines the events of others on one sheet, dedicates two to some.

Thus, the artistically insignificant 2nd, 3rd, 11th, 13th, 15th, 16th chapters of the Apocalypse are omitted. The 6th and 12th chapters are devoted to two leaves each: "The Four Horsemen" (sheet III) and "The Opening of the 6th Seal" (sheet IV), and, respectively, "The Seven-headed Dragon" (sheet IX) and "The Heavenly Host" (sheet X).

The 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 14th chapters are devoted to one sheet each. Here Durer follows the text almost verbatim. These are "The Strong Angel" (folio XIII), "The Choir of the Righteous or the Worship of the Lamb" (folio XII), "The Branding of the Righteous" (folio V) and "The Trumpet Voice" (folio VI).

The contents of the 1st and 5th chapters are combined in the I leaf of the series, which is called "Seven Lamps".

Plates XIII "The Whore of Babylon" and XIV "The Conclusion of Satan" cover the contents of the 17th and 18th and, respectively, the 20th and 21st chapters.

Thus, Durer compares, experiments, combines various elements and, remaining entirely within the text, creates something of his own, completely new. Under his chisel, medieval motifs of expectation of the coming reformation and renewal of the world come to life again. The gospel prophecy is filled with the moods of pre-reformation Europe and behind the pictures of death and destruction, it seems that the chiliastic dreams of the Joachimites, the "Brothers of Common Life" and those who, under the banner of the "Shoe" with a sword in their hands, tried to implement the ideas of the people's Reformation are invisibly present.

Such an active attitude to the source, the desire to exhaust the tradition, to present it comprehensively, in all the variety of forms and shades, is a characteristic feature of scientific and artistic methods of Revival.

At the same time, the rigid, consistent correlation of each sheet, each episode with the whole, the possibility of perceiving one or another engraving as a separate, independent work, the union of interrelated scenes on one sheet resembles the structural-organizing principle, "manifestatio", which, as shown by E.Panofsky, at the heart of scholastic philosophy and architectonics of the Gothic Cathedral [66, pp. 215-220].

Thus, the principles laid down by Durer as the basis of his creation are contradictory, they belong to different eras. This is confirmed by the spatio-temporal characteristics of the series.

The compressiveness of the three time layers - past, present and future - dates back to medieval notions of time [67, pp. 43-167].

Thus, "The Martyrdom of St. John" and the first two pages of the series introduce the motive of expectation and are the "past" in relation to further events. The following 11 engravings - the prophecy that has begun to be realized — are "real", correlated with Durer's time. The last sheet is dedicated to the ideal future.

The maximum occupancy of the space and most of all the foreground is inherent in all engravings of the "Apocalypse". It seems that every leaf brings down on the viewer the cataclysm of a worldwide catastrophe. The vision of St. John, as it were, intrudes into the present, becomes authentic, keenly empathized with. This is greatly enhanced by the fact that individual sheets of the series, dating back to traditional medieval plots, suggest a two-dimensional perception, vertically, from bottom to top and from top to bottom, according to the values of medieval thinking [68, pp. 50-63.]

These are the "Seven Lamps" (sheet I), "Opening of the VI seal" (sheet IV), "Trumpet Voice" (sheet VI), "Heavenly Host" (sheet X), "Temptation of mankind" (sheet XI), "Choir of the Righteous" (sheet XII). In these engravings, the foreground plays an important role, all the figures are, as it were, brought to the plane, oriented to the upcoming ones. The motives of worship are clearly presented in the I ("Seven Lamps") and XI ("The Temptation of Humanity") sheets, where we see St. John praying and kneeling before the apocalyptic beast representatives of various classes.

Because of this, the content of sheets I, IV, VI, X, XI and II could be read in the aspect of the realized eternity, as part of an inalienable space in which one can stay, becomes part of a sacred time and place, but which one cannot simply admire and receive aesthetic pleasure, which characterizes the modern perception of the viewer of works of art.

However, is there only a medieval worldview behind this? After all, in these same engravings, where the medieval assessment and the way of perception seem to prevail, we see an image of the earth, distances and, very importantly, the horizon line, subject to the laws of perspective. They are present even in the "Choir of the Righteous" that filled the whole sky (folio XII).

Recall that the image of the horizon line was very important for the art of the Renaissance and the formation of the "Renaissance" vision of the world [11, p.247-249]. In the paintings of the early Italian Renaissance, the horizon line was a place of visual unification of heaven and earth and, together with perspective, contributed to the alienation of the depicted into a three-dimensional pictorial space. At the same time, perspective and horizon were a means of destroying the religious, "complicit" in the aspect of eternity and affirming the "spectacular" in the aspect of earthly time perception of the depicted events [68, pp. 35-38]

However, since in the "Apocalypse" perspective and the horizon line coexist with a plane-oriented foreground, they perform somewhat different, special functions here compared to the painting of the Italian Quattrocento. Let's move on to their consideration.

As already mentioned, all the engravings that make up the "Apocalypse" are interconnected and have a high degree of unity. The unifying beginning is the text followed by Durer and the graphic language of the series - sharp contrasts of light and shadow, black and white, a subtle combination of expressive, tearing, broken and smooth, elastic lines of the drawing. Nevertheless, this work can be divided into four groups of engravings that differ from each other. The defining criterion will be Durer's options for using planar (medieval) and perspective (Renaissance) methods of organizing the material.

The first group will include two sheets: "The Strong Angel" (VIII) and "The Conclusion of Satan" (XIV). These are typically Renaissance works, in which the space of the sky and the figures brought to the foreground obey the perspective and organically merge with the landscape surrounding them.

The second group includes woodcuts, in which the medieval vision of the world prevails. In them, the plane plays an important role and either there is no consistent application of perspective, or there is no horizon line. These are "The Seven Lamps" (I), "The Four Horsemen" (III), "The Seven-headed Dragon" (IX), "The Temptation of Mankind" (XI), "The Choir of the Righteous" (XII).

The third group will consist of engravings, where the image of the sky placed in the foreground, on the plane, is of great importance, and at the same time perspective and horizon line are consistently applied. These are the "Heavenly Gates" (II) and the "Heavenly Host" (X). In these sheets, you can conditionally separate the top from the bottom, the foreground from the background, tear off the medieval vision of the world from the Renaissance, present images of heaven and earth as independent paintings.

The fourth group includes those sheets in which there is a horizon line, the image of the landscape is subject to the laws of linear perspective, but at the same time an active role is played by the icon, planar beginning. They form such a clear unity that it is impossible to separate the medieval interpretation from the Renaissance one without destroying the structural integrity of the engravings. These are "The Opening of the V and VI Seals" (IV), "The Trumpet Voice" (VI), "Avenging Angels" (VII), "The Branding of the Righteous" (V), "The Whore of Babylon" (XIII)

Let's turn to the first group. It is important for us as a statement that the years of study with M. Wolgemuth, a trip to Italy, acquaintance with the work of Martin Schongauer had a fruitful impact on the young Durer. There is no doubt that the image of a Strong Angel towering above the earth (sheet VIII), as well as an ideal society born in a fierce struggle, a chiliastic kingdom of freedom, equality, justice and prosperity (sheet XIV) could only be convincing if solved with the help of Renaissance artistic means. The hope that the sacrifices were not in vain, that the human race would preserve itself in severe trials, the belief in the triumph of future justice could not be expressed in the public, familiar, but obsolete language of the passing era. In these engravings, Durer shows that he knows the techniques of Italian masters well, is able to see and depict reality as a Renaissance artist. And it is all the more remarkable that Durer did not consider this to be the main thing and it was not this that he laid the basis for the "Apocalypse".

Consider the second group (I, III, IX, XI, XII sheets). The perspective and the horizon line are absent in these engravings for a reason. The fact is that the image of the anxious expectation of the Last Judgment and the miraculous renewal of the world ("Seven Lamps"); the delight and gratitude of the righteous who achieved paradise bliss ("Choir of the Righteous") could be extremely accessible to understanding and empathy being expressed in medieval artistic canons. Here Durer proceeded from his own religious consciousness and appealed to the same feelings of his contemporaries. The same can be said about the engraving "The Temptation of Mankind" (sheet XI). Interestingly, the kneeling crowd is very similar to the figures of donors in front of the image of saints. Such an obviously deliberate change of emphasis could not be perceived indifferently. The universal worship of the apocalyptic beast, decided in the traditional spirit of the altar compositions of the XV century, had to have the strongest degree of impact. Looking at these woodcuts, it can be assumed that Durer well understood the role and significance of perspective and horizon lines in contemporary art. The fact that he used, or rather in this case just deliberately did not use them, shows the sheet "Four Horsemen".

It is noteworthy that two decades later, when the Renaissance vision of the world and the "spectator" perception of works of art were mostly established, Durer's followers lost this selective approach. In the famous Martin Luther Bible, published in September 1522 in Wittenberg (the engravings were made in the workshop of the Cranach artists) and in the Thomas Wolf Bible (published in 1523, the engravings were made according to drawings by Tans Holbein the Younger), in the images of the "Four Horsemen" dating back to the "Apocalypse" of Durer, attempts were made to convey the scene in real earthly space, introduce perspective and horizon [69, pp. 330-331] . As a result, the embodiment of the plot borrowed from Durer turned out to be extremely primitive and impoverished.

The same fate awaited the works of other contemporaries of Durer, who tried to imitate the "Apocalypse", but wanted to correct its artistic inconsistencies (arbitrary interpretation of perspective, flatness of some figures, volume of others, dilution of earthly and celestial events into two different spaces with their vanishing points, etc.). So, the Venetian artist Giovanni Andrea Vavassori in his engravings, following the prototypes of Durer, but trying to bring them in accordance with Renaissance stylistics, receives absolutely calm compositions devoid of "Durer's suggestion and a concentrated sense of inescapable horror", "exaltation and penetrating eschatological nerve" [70, pp. 107-109].

It is interesting that not only an unknown carver from the Cranach workshop, but also such an outstanding artist as Hans Holbein Jr. failed to discern the merits of his contemporary's work, could not penetrate its specifics. The same can be said about Martin Luther, who highly appreciated Durer's "Apocalypse" [69, p. 330] and, together with Lucas Cranach the Elder, selected material from it for illustrations of the first edition of the Bible translated by him into German.

In Durer's "Four Horsemen" there is no horizon and a clear perspective. Therefore, the space of the engraving seems extremely closed and cramped for monumental figures in their expression. The riders seem to be forcibly squeezed into the small size of the leaf, they clearly do not fit in it, which makes the space they occupy seem to be rapidly expanding. Due to this, this scene is perceived as something happening outside the earthly and heavenly spaces, all real and sacred time, but as being somewhere in between, easily correlated with both, and therefore infinitely broader: a phenomenon of cosmic order.

However, although this engraving is dominant over the others, and it is it that gives the perception of the entire series a sense of rapid movement in time and space, it should have remained and remained unique. The rest of the whole was based on other principles.

Let's move on to the third group. The engraving "Heaven's Gate" (sheet II) occupies a very important place in Durer's work. She is the prologue of the Last Judgment, the very beginning of the end.

We see the gates of heaven opening over the earth frozen in anxious expectation. It seems that in the silence that followed, the ominous creaking of hinges is heard. The terrible God - father sits on the throne, ready to create a cruel, merciless judgment. In this engraving, the heavenly world and the earthly world do not represent a single whole, they are isolated, disconnected from each other. Durer achieves the impression that the icon plane of the sky is hanging over the beautiful, but alas, defenseless earth and is about to crush it. This way of organizing the material justifies itself. For in order to imagine the nightmares of the end of the world more vividly, it was necessary to show the beauty and greatness of what was destined to perish, what was to be lost.

Durer lovingly depicts meadows, shady groves, mountain peaks, the boundless distance of the sea. Manicured roads, cozy castles, well-maintained cities harmoniously merge with the peaceful, breathing silence and tranquility of nature, form a single whole with it. Before us is a world inhabited, transformed by the hands of people, "the earthly habitation of man," which, as the Italian humanist Gianozzo Manetti wrote, "cannot be better either in reality or in thought." [71, pp. 65-74].

It should be noted here that Luther considered it unacceptable to confuse the eyes of believers with the beauty of the created world before the greatness of Divine providence. Therefore, there is no image of the earth in the engraving "Worship of Elders and Angels" (Luther's Bible 1525), made on the basis of Durer's "Heavenly Gates" [69, p. 338]

We see this farmed land in Durer and in the "Heavenly Host" (sheet X). People cannot, should not stand aside, be indifferent to the struggle of light and darkness, good and evil, therefore Durer makes the human world, if not a participant, then at least a witness to it.  The humanistic message present in Durer's engravings is clearly manifested here.

It is also possible that in the very possibility of breaking the background and foreground, i.e., heaven and earth, the struggle of emerging and dying forms of image and perception of reality, characteristic of European art of the XV-XVI centuries, was reflected. The artist already knew how to depict a person in real earthly space, used perspective and the horizon line, but being still bound by tradition, limited the foreground (usually with figures of saints) to a curtain, fence, wall. They played the role of a golden background, which in the past "pushed" the images of saints onto the worshipper, making them an object of worship. And behind the conventional background, often high above, a Renaissance landscape, subordinate to perspective, stretching to the horizon, was depicted.

A good example of this is the central part of the altar of St. Bartholomew, belonging to "the Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece". The figures of Saints Agnes, Bartholomew and Castile stand firmly on the ground. They are majestic and monumental. But the space in which they are located is limited to the back by a conventionally decorative background. At the level of the saints' heads, the background breaks off, revealing to us the boundless expanses of the real world subordinated to perspective. This work can be attributed to attempts to present a new attitude to the world within the framework of his old vision. It is impossible to speak about equal interaction, interpenetration of medieval and Renaissance artistic traditions in this case. The artist simply pays tribute to both the old and the new, equally indulges the pious and intellectual needs of the customer.

                Durer has a fundamentally different approach, which does not just follow the tradition, but tries to get the most out of it for himself.

In the engravings we have indicated, he resolutely removes all conventional details and boldly puts (so far only puts) the earthly and heavenly world, time and eternity next to each other, appeals with greater directness to the religious and at the same time secular type of perception.  At the same time, the horizon line separates the top from the bottom, the foreground from the background, enhances the contrast between the idyllic calm earth and the full expression, tearing apart the heavens. It should be specifically noted that here we are faced not just with the separation of the heavenly and earthly spheres, as is typical for a medieval icon [68, pp. 39-42], the horizon line rather separates two opposing artistic systems, puts them one against the other as a thesis and antithesis in a scholastic treatise. Pierre Abelard also noted in his treatise "Sic et non" that the juxtaposition of two opposite principles (thesis and antithesis) with the aim of their further reconciliation ("concordantiae") encouraged readers (in our case, viewers) to search for the truth more zealously [see 66, pp. 213-312]. 

The meaning of linear perspective in this case is that the maximally filled, appealing to the feelings of the believer, the space of heaven does not obey it. But the Renaissance landscape executed according to its laws seems all the more harmonious and beautiful. This reinforces the dualistic confrontation between earth and sky, especially since the latter seeks to dominate the human world not only plot-wise, but also compositionally.

Thus, the gap in the consciousness of people between the heavenly, sacred and real, earthly world, between the shattered eternity and the real human time, which is being realized in the era of Durer, is emphasized.

                Very close to the group in question is Durer's woodcut, made during the years of work on the Apocalypse, which is called The Holy Family with Hares. Here, too, one can see the separate existence of the evangelical characters and the landscape stretching into the distance. The figures of angels, Joseph and Mary with the baby seem to be brought to the plane, can be objects of worship. If there were a neutral background behind them, we would have a typically medieval work in structure in front of us. By the way, the background elements are indirectly present in the form of a low brick fence. But here Durer, using a deep perspective, depicts the landscape, and this image ending with the horizon, in isolation from the evangelical characters, can be considered as a purely Renaissance work, assuming a single point of perception.

Thus, there are also, as it were, two independent paintings and, accordingly, two visions of the world belonging to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. But, as in the engravings of the third group, they are still only standing side by side, there is no natural connection, interpenetration, which is inherent in the remaining sheets of the "Apocalypse" that we have not examined.

                The fourth group will consist of engravings dedicated to the theme of the Last Judgment, the End of the World. True, sheet XIII falls out of this context – "The Whore of Babylon", however, it is solved in the same expressive, dynamic way as "The Opening of the Sixth Seal" (sheet IV), "The Branding of the Righteous" (sheet V), "The Trumpet Voice" (sheet VI), "Avenging Angels" (sheet VII). All these engravings are characterized by unity of scale, harmony of proportions, convincing depiction of the depth of space and, at the same time, the active use of the icon, planar beginning.

                In the "Opening of the VI Seal", the plane of the sky spewing a rain of fire and crowded with human figures huddled together in horror in the foreground naturally and directly combines with the hilly landscape stretching to the horizon. The same landscape opens up before us between the points of the striking swords in "Avenging Angels".

The same can be said about the woodcuts "The Branding of the Righteous", "The Trumpet Voice", "The Whore of Babylon", in which Durer, together with the plane, consistently uses perspective and limits the visible earthly world to a sharply drawn horizon line.

This is the first time we encounter an amazing combination of medieval and Renaissance views of the universe. Linear perspective, the horizon line and the foreground gravitating towards the plane interact with each other in a balanced, let's say, dialogically. As a result, a colossal panorama of the dying world, already inhabited, human, opens up before us in its impressive power.  It is enough to point out the burning cities and sinking ships in the bay, apparently sailed from distant, recently discovered lands. ("Opening of the VI Seal", "Trumpet Voice", "Whore of Babylon")

These sheets reveal a tragic consonance with the group III engravings discussed above, "The Opening of the Heavenly Gates" (sheet II) and "The Heavenly Host" (sheet X), in which the artist demonstrates to us the unique beauty and greatness of the earth transformed by man.

So, in the woodcuts of group IV, Durer carries out a synthesis: combining linear perspective and plane elements, he unites two systems of the universe and fuses them into a single whole in the pictures of the world catastrophe. As O. Benes points out, "the heavens and the earth combined into a single whole are a cosmic scene dating back to the abstract compositions of the Middle Ages…However, their preset explodes in this chaos of sharply contradictory (our italics – N.B., M.F.) expressive images to each other [72, p. 61]. Such a step was possible only as a result of D?rer's careful study and reworking of the traditions of German late Gothic, and the role of a catalyst in this process is carried out by mature, stylistically developed, turning into a new, Renaissance quality of late Gothic forms.

At the same time, the plane, as well as the linear perspective and the horizon line, as a means of artistic development of reality, actively step into the struggle of world forces. Their dialogical interaction allows us to simultaneously consider the woodcuts of group IV and eschatologically, as a long-awaited catastrophe that has befallen humanity and from the perspective of the viewer, simply comparing and correlating what he saw with the moods of pre-reformation Europe.

If we abstract from the condition of simultaneity, then in the first case, the space of engravings will draw those looking into the system of eschatological and chiliastic images, will become two-dimensional, will turn for them into an authentic, acutely experienced, inalienable reality. According to the experience of space, the categories of time, the past, present and future will be mixed, compressed and will cause their equally mixed perception.  As a result, the past of the evangelical cataclysm seems to tip over into the present and into the anxiously anticipated future, and the present and future of pre-reformation Europe is seen in the biblical past.

In the second case, i.e. with the Renaissance, "spectacular" approach, the events captured by Durer with the help of linear perspective are alienated into a three-dimensional graphic space, and the category of "present" becomes dominant and dominant from the categories of time, because actual comparisons and analogies with the state of affairs in the Catholic Church and the German lands of the late XV will come to the fore - the beginning of the XVI centuries.

Thus, in Durer's Apocalypse, perspective and the horizon line are used by the artist consciously and purposefully. They serve as a means of a more imaginative embodiment of the events of the "Revelation".

At the same time, the perspective and the horizon line perform more complex functions than in Italian and Dutch Quattrocento painting. They not only serve as a means of uniting heaven and earth, a means of alienating images from the viewer into a three-dimensional graphic space, but they demonstrate to us the equal interaction of two giant cultural layers, two opposing views of the universe, two artistic systems - the aging medieval and the new Renaissance.

Perspective and the horizon line, entering into a dialogue with the medieval vision presented in the series, actively form the spatial-temporal ESCHATOLOGICAL characteristics of the work. As a result, the space of the "Apocalypse" presupposes a dual perception. According to the attitudes of the Middle Ages, from the bottom up and from the top down vertically and according to the worldview of the Renaissance, from right to left and from oneself into the depths. Accordingly, the spatio-temporal characteristic of the series can be considered as a prophecy of St. John, in the religious aspect of eternity, as something to come, which has already begun to be realized, and as just an image, correlated in a certain way with modernity, the sharpened and sometimes tragic perception of which does not prevent us from looking at it in a spectator's way, from the outside, from the perspective of the Renaissance.

Thus, the world of the "Apocalypse" can be two-dimensional and three-dimensional, visual and speculative at the same time.

And there is every reason to assume that in the "Apocalypse" we are faced with a mixed (and therefore very peculiar) interpretation of the category of time and space. It clearly shows the very transition of the space-time representations of the Middle Ages to the ideas of time and space inherent in the New Time. It is also possible that we have before us one of the variants of the Renaissance mastery of the categories of time and space in the art of Europe. Attention is drawn to its openness and conscious demonstrativeness, because two artistic systems interact with each other on an equal footing; their stylistic potential and expressive means are used entirely, with full dedication and, as a result, with maximum impressive force.

Demonstrating the rebirth of the fundamental structural elements, Durer shows us the very process of the birth of a new world, the destruction of the medieval universe and thereby creates a model of the modern era.

It is impossible not to notice that Durer actively brings the spirit of modernity into his work [22, pp. 38-44; 24, pp. 65-66]. In the introductory sheet "The Martyrdom of St. John" we see the square and streets of a German city, possibly Nuremberg. Here we see a crowd of citizens - contemporaries of the artist. They can be considered not only as spectators of the execution, but also as spectators of the "Apocalypse", because it was to them that Durer's work was addressed [see 70, p. 330].

Further, the "Apocalypse" reflects the social conflicts and political struggle that shook Germany at the turn of two centuries, the characters of the New Testament are given portrait features of real historical figures [16, S. 175]. Therefore, the "present" certainly rises above the eschatological motives of the past – the image of the modern Durer era, rapidly rushing from the Middle Ages to the New Time.

The apocalyptic moods of pre-reformation Europe, reflected by Durer, define the view of the ultimate destinies of the world and humanity, which we can observe in modern society [60, 70, 73]. It was the eschatological tension that arose in the "Durer era" that became the basis for the formation of a new worldview position, expressed in an active desire to transform the world, to build political and national ideologies (appealing to the concept of chiliasm), the emergence of a huge number of gloomy scenarios, the authors of which were the people themselves, which was called the "secular apocalypse" [73, p. 16].  

Durer himself, if we rely on his diary entries ("O Lord, then grant us a new beautiful Jerusalem that will descend from heaven, as it is written in the Apocalypse, a sacred and clear gospel, not obscured by human teaching" [28, vol. 1, p. 152]), was a supporter of the chiliastic perception of Revelation. In the last engraving of the cycle "The Conclusion of Satan" (sheet XIV), heavenly Jerusalem looks like an ordinary German city, in no way fundamentally different from those depicted on the first sheets of the series. V. Uspensky notes that "with all the phantasmagoric imagery of the "Apocalypse", it is turned to reality" [70, p. 114]. Over time, the mundane interpretation of the Apocalypse became dominant, obscuring the Last Judgment in the public consciousness. The idea of the Apocalypse arose not as the impending approach of the second coming of Christ, but as a series of frightening catastrophes. Apocalypticism becomes a genre of mass culture, even the term "post-apocalypse" appears, meaning the world after the catastrophe, and not "a new heaven and a new earth". V. Uspensky believes that Durer played a role in the formation of the "secular apocalypse", no wonder many images of his engravings are used in works of modern culture [70, p. 115].

Thus, we see that Durer's "Apocalypse" is a unique work that has had a huge impact on world culture. The genius of Durer allowed the contradictions of humanism and the Reformation, medieval Gothic and Renaissance realism to be resolved in a series of engravings on an eschatological theme. Durer's work gave an impetus to the development of apocalyptic moods and images that are still relevant in modern art.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the creation of "Apocalypse" meant the completion of an important stage in the creative development of the artist himself. Over the years of working on it, Durer mastered and reworked the Late Gothic artistic traditions, followed the path of the German XV century and made an evolution from the late Gothic to the level of an outstanding master of the High Renaissance.

During this period, such features of his art as uncompromising realism, loyalty to the truth of life - nature, acute psychological characteristics of images were formed. Even more important is the development of Durer in a purely personal, human way. For along with the accumulation of knowledge, the improvement of skill, his self-awareness increased. At this time, the foundations were laid for what predetermined further searches, constant creative gorenje, which forced Durer to "search, learn to achieve, to learn and to approach some truth" all his life [28, vol. 2, p. 26]

In the self-portrait painted in the year of the publication of the Apocalypse (Madrid, Prado, 1498), we see a humanist Man, an artist of the High Renaissance. Durer looks into the future with a strict, calm gaze. Thirty years lay ahead, a whole epoch, later named after him.

 

 

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The subject of the study of the article "Apocalypse" by A. Durer: an attempt at a philosophical interpretation of the space-time problems of the cycle of engravings" is the activity of the German artist Albrecht Durer. The article examines the historical context of the painter and graphic artist's work and focuses on the analysis of his series of engravings "Apocalypse". The purpose of the article is to consider the "Apocalypse" as a result in the development of German Renaissance art, the analysis of its structure, the spatial and temporal organization of the image and an attempt to "identify the significance of the cycle of Durer's engravings in the development of apocalyptic issues and the image of death in world culture." The methodology of the study is not specified by the author. For the most part, the article demonstrates the classical art criticism approach, set back by J. Vasari, in which the analysis of a work of art is based on the study of the biography of the artist and focuses on the features of his stylistic techniques, composition, and artistic techniques. However, the author of the article does not limit himself to this setting and demonstrates approaches characteristic of the social history of art, trying to show the influence on the artist of the socio–cultural situation – the Reformation and Peasant wars, customer requirements, and style changes - the planar medieval image and the beginning to assert the Renaissance installation for a linear perspective. The relevance of the research is determined by a number of factors: the approaching five hundredth anniversary of the artist's death, the actualization of eschatological and apocalyptic moods in modern society, the importance of the "Apocalypse" engraving series for visualizing the end of time. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the author's identification of four groups of images in the engraving series "Apocalypse" by Durer, differing in spatial and temporal characteristics. The author speaks about: 1) "typically Renaissance" images in which perspective is present and the figures are inscribed into the surrounding landscape, 2) "typically medieval" woodcuts in which the plane plays an important role, 3) images in which, with the dominance of the medieval way of seeing the world, renaissance motifs "invade" the picture – "perspective and horizon line are consistently applied," and 4) in images dominated by linear perspective, the horizon line is present, but at the same time the key figures fill the entire front plane of the woodcut. The style of the article is scientific, typical for art criticism. The author addresses his work primarily to the trained reader, for whom the mention of a particular painting evokes clear visual images. Perhaps, since the article is not provided with illustrative material, independent work on the part of the reader is supposed to refer to reproductions of the mentioned images, without which the text loses its meaning. The structure of the article is based on the linear principle of the unfolding presentation of the results of the research of Durer's work. Although the author does not use intra-article subheadings, the text clearly shows thematically the parts: introduction, general characteristics of the engraving series, the author's typology of engravings in four groups, conclusion. The content of the article fully corresponds to the title and the stated problem. In the introduction, the author briefly describes the research devoted to the work of the German artist, including both foreign studies and works by domestic authors in the review. Defines the specifics of the historical period in which Durer lived and worked, stops at the religious positions of the artist and their influence on his work. The author of the article emphasizes the importance of three main dichotomies that influenced Durer's work – the ideological attitudes of Humanism and the Reformation, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Catholicism and Protestantism. In the next part of the article, the author refers to the general characteristics of the engraving cycle "Apocalypse", the history of its creation, its assessments by contemporaries and art historians. The article makes a successful attempt to present the importance of Durer's engravings for the development of the theme of the end of the world, notes the artist's innovation in the interpretation of this topic, its influence on other artists. The author's appeal to the theme of time in Durer's work looks interesting. She reveals herself in several angles. The first of them is the time of the artist and the time of the viewer, which may coincide for the contemporaries of the creator, or differ for most of his viewers, separated from him by historical epochs. The second perspective of thinking about time is an appeal to various types of time of apocalyptic events – from the everyday time preceding the beginning of the end, through the tense time of the apocalypse itself to the eternity of non–existence. The third perspective is the topic of ways to convey the type of time by expressive means. Finally, another look at time is the "ways of reading" prints, which Durer combines the vertical and horizontal approaches of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The third and most significant part of the article is devoted to the structure of the apocalyptic series of engravings. The author of the article examines in detail the question of the relationship between the structure of the Apocalypse of John the Theologian and the engraving sheets of Durer, noting the combination of two attitudes in the artist's work – the desire for a literal reproduction of the biblical text, on the one hand, and an independent layout, combining chapters in one illustration. In this part, the author of the article analyzes in detail the types of images in the engraving series, highlighting four groups of images, depending on the space depicted by the artist – an unfolding perspective, a planar image, and a combination of these two approaches. In conclusion, the author dwells on the importance of Durer's "Apocalypse" for the development of the theme of the end of time in painting, its influence on German art, the place of the engraving series for the artist's own work. The bibliography includes 73 sources and actually contains references to all significant studies of Durer's work. In order to be able to indicate the scale of research on the German artist and not increase the volume of the article, the author uses such a "trick" as listing a large group of researchers in one footnote. Thus, the first footnote contains a link to 18 sources at once, and the second to 10. Of course, this author's "move" will be appreciated by scientists who are just starting to study the work of the German artist, for whom the author will significantly reduce the time to search for this type of research. The appeal to opponents is present throughout the work, especially actively, the author turns to parallel research in the second part, in questions devoted to the assessment of Durer's work, the influence of time and the socio-cultural environment on his work. The articles are of interest primarily to professional researchers of Durer's work, German painting and graphics, and art historians. However, it will be useful to all specialists who, to one degree or another, turn to the topic of the end of time, eschatology, apocalypticism, who are interested in the problem of perception of time and space in different periods of history, the influence of general cultural attitudes.