GCD for the development of speech “Compilation of a story based on the painting “Hare. GCD on the development of speech "Compilation of a story based on the painting" Hare Durer paintings about the nature of the hare

Among the masterpieces of world art, the watercolor "Hare" by Albrecht Dürer is notable for its modesty: small size, restrained colors, simple composition, insignificant plot. If you recall other "natural studies" of the same Dürer, this hare is far from being as entertaining as a deer crowned with antlers, an owl with huge eyes, a dead bird with iridescent plumage, an exotic giant rhinoceros, a fanged walrus. And yet, it is the "Hare" that to this day beats records of popularity not only among the works of Dürer, but also among works of European art in general. What has this watercolor captivated us for five centuries?

Albrecht Durer. Deer head. 1503

First of all, let's get acquainted with the "portrayed". This is the most common hare (Lepus europaeus), in Russian it is called a hare, in German - Feldhase (field hare) because of the animal's commitment to open spaces. The original name of Durer's watercolor "Feldhase" (or "Junger Hase" - "Hare"), but more often this work is called "Dürer's Hare" - "Dürer-Hase". Moreover, the word "Hare" should be written with a capital letter in all languages, and not just in German, as required by grammar.

Albrecht Durer. Walrus head. 1521

Brown hares still live in abundance in Germany, and even 500 years ago it was the most common thing to meet a hare. We have no reason not to trust the legend that Dürer, who loved to walk around Nuremberg, found a sick bunny (according to one version, he saved it from a flood), brought it home, went out and depicted it on a piece of paper. It can be added with confidence that the watercolor was created in the summer, as evidenced by the brown fur coat of the "model" - in winter, the hare's fur is much lighter. As evidence that Dürer worked with living nature, an expressive detail is given: a window cover is reflected in the eye of a hare, depicted taking into account the curvature of the surface of the pupil. Some art historians, however, are skeptical about the blissful legend about the rescued and tamed hare, which obediently posed for Dürer. Most likely, they believe, Dürer worked from memory, and borrowed the spectacular technique of reflecting the window cover in the pupil from Flemish painting. However, whether the hare was a living animal, a hunting trophy or a stuffed animal, he rightfully gained immortality in the world of art.

Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait. 1500

The drawing is masterfully done. “Unsurpassed will be the eye, the sniffing nose, the hanging right ear and the upright left ear, the variety of hairline, which is completely different on the ears than on the wet neck and back, not to mention the mustache hairs that look like threads. That highest degree of expressiveness has remained unattainable, when the work appeals not only to the eye of the viewer, but also to the same degree to the sense of touch, so that there is a desire to touch and run back and forth over the wool, "- this is how the German art historian Kuno Mittelshted describes watercolor. Bunny we really want to stroke it. Looking at it, we seem to feel the softness of velvety fur, the warmth of a small body, we feel the pulse beating. We see literally every hair on the hare's skin, but in Dürer's work there is not even a trace of tedious lifelikeness - this is really life itself!

Kaysersburg Castle in Nuremberg.
Maybe somewhere here Dürer picked up a hare?

Let not the whole secret of Durer's charm, but at least some of it is revealed in three words: watercolor, gouache, whitewash. Watercolor, known in the East since ancient times, was still new in Europe at the beginning of the 16th century. Dürer is one of the first European artists who worked in this complex technique, he is called the founder of modern watercolor. A transparent soft watercolor drawing conveys all the richness of the color of a hare coat, here you can count about a dozen shades: ocher-gray, brown, light brown, reddish, beige ... Thousands of hairs are worked out over the fluid watercolor with dense matte gouache, among which there are literally no two identical: they gradually change in thickness and length depending on how the fur lies on the body of the animal. Scientists have found that with the help of the most advanced computer programs it is impossible to model the skin of a hare better than Dürer did. And finally, thanks to the whitewash laid with jewelry subtlety, the body of the animal seems voluminous, the fur is light and shiny.

View of Nuremberg from the walls of the Kaisersburg castle

Durer chooses the most winning composition in order to present his "model" in volume. The image is placed diagonally with a three-quarter turn, the artist's gaze is directed from above. Under the fluffy fur coat of a hare, there is a construction - a well-shaped and reasonably folded skeleton, as if we see through the animal.

Dürer's house in Nuremberg, where the artist lived from 1509.

Peering into nature with the delight of an artist and the equanimity of a scientist, Dürer seems to achieve the impossible: he combines the objectivity and accuracy of the "scientific manual" with emotionality, the utmost detail with the integrity of the image. The hare is alert, sensitive, and at the same time trusting. For all its modesty and small size, it is full of peculiar dignity. If you decipher the message that the artist put into this drawing, it would sound something like this: “Here I am, a hare, an inconspicuous creature of God, but I am also part of this huge, complex, beautiful world, and I have a drop of its harmony and wisdom. Look look at me with affection, man, admire me, be kind to me!

Dürer House Museum in Nuremberg

"Hare", in our opinion, is a work that is quite traditional in terms of genre and fits into the framework of animalistics, but for its time it was truly innovative: the artist depicted JUST a hare. The drawing is completely free from religious symbols. This is not a prolific hare - a symbol of voluptuousness, and not a white hare, denoting victory over sensuality, which is depicted at the feet of the Virgin Mary, not a symbol of caution, cowardice, escape from sins, and so on. This is just an animal in itself, seen by the artist without the "packaging" of symbols, as if for the first time.

Chocolate "Hare Durer"

However, the watercolor, not endowed with symbolic overtones, acquired it regardless of the will of the author. Dürer's hare has become associated over time with the Osterhase Easter Bunny. Easter cards and decorations with the image of a Dürer hare, hare figurines and embossed chocolate medals, repeating, with more or less accuracy, the prototype, are an invariable accessory of Easter days.

Dürer's hare, hand-cast from elite chocolate.

However, even outside the Easter symbolism, the image of "Durer's Hare", as they say, has gone to the people. Here, not only the perfection of the drawing played a role, but also its small size, the possibility of high-quality reproduction, and finally, the theme itself - a cute animal that people treat with sympathy. Over the five centuries of its existence, the hare has been copied and reproduced many times by artists. There were times when a picture of a Dürer hare in a frame created comfort in almost every German living room (and such a reproduction hangs above my desk, I often look at it when I compose something)).
. With the development of mass tourism, the hare migrated to covers, bags, mouse pads, turned into figurines of all colors, sizes, materials. The well-known German company "Steiff" at one time produced a soft toy "Dürer's Hare".

Dürer Hare. Steif soft toy and souvenir bag

As an exorbitantly swollen symbol of popular culture, the famous hare attracted the attention of the modern sculptor Jürgen Hertz, thanks to whom in 1984 a shocking and, of course, impressive sculptural composition "Hare" appeared on the old square in front of the Dürer's house-museum in Nuremberg. On a low granite pedestal lies the torn carcass of a huge hare with a dead amber eye fixed on the sky. The fatty body of the hare is surrounded by fragments of a collapsed box, which has become cramped for her, smaller hares crawl out of the holes in the carcass, either swallowed by the hare and striving for freedom, or devouring it, and most likely both together. Gnawed bones lie in front of the toothy mouth (however, they can also be mistaken for plant stems). The most terrible detail - under the clawed paw, the toes of the person absorbed by the monster are clearly visible. Dürer is reminiscent of the second part of the composition - a tiny figurine of Dürer's hare, mounted on a separate pedestal, polished to a golden sheen. Protesting against the hype around the work, which is undergoing destructive metamorphoses, Hertz also warns us against a consumerist attitude towards nature: in response to violence, it turns innocent animals into dangerous disgusting mutants. The paradox is that the sculpture of Hertz, in turn, became a landmark of Nuremberg, replicated on postcards, while the popularity of Dürer's Hare did not decrease at all.

Juergen Hertz. Sculptural composition "Hare" in Nuremberg. 1984

In 2002, the Hare solemnly celebrated its 500th anniversary, and since the original drawing is in the Albertina Museum in Vienna, he returned to Nuremberg in a very unusual way. In the summer of 2003, the grandiose installation "7000 Dürer's Hares" was placed on the Market Square, invented by the sculptor Ottmar Hörl. 7000 green plastic hares, sitting in a strict order, filled the area, which, according to eyewitnesses, resembled either a lawn or garden beds. Unlike Hertz's gloomy sculpture, Hörl's idea of ​​the incessant replication of the Nuremberg masterpiece is interpreted cheerfully and with humor.
It remains to say a few words about the original drawing, which is kept in Vienna as the greatest treasure. The drawing is shown to the audience, alas, infrequently, and recently they have not been taken out even to the most prestigious exhibitions. The condition of the paper and paint pasted on cardboard is such that the "Hare" must observe a strict temperature regime and not be exposed to even weak lighting.

Ottmar Hörl. Installation "7000 Dürer's Hares" in Nuremberg. 2003

The best copy of the Hare in the world is shown in the halls of the Albertina, and the original can be seen no more than once every 5-10 years. This spring, the "Hare" participated in the exhibition "The Founding of Albertina. From Dürer to Napoleon", but if you were not in Vienna at that time, you should not be upset and wait years until the next appearance of Dürer's Hare to fans.

$10 coin issued by the British Virgin Islands
in 2010 in the series "Masterpieces of Art" .

Albertina art historians, in response to complaints, are advised to simply turn on the computer and find the image of Dürer's watercolor on the site http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project Thanks to the program "Google Art Project", - they say - you can view watercolors in excellent quality to your heart's content without compromising the work. You will see every hair, every claw of the hare and the reflection of the window frame in his meek eyes. Well, Durer would probably be pleased ...

Published in Partner magazine (Dortmund), No. 7(202), 2014

Marina Agranovskaya (Emmendingen)

The humblest masterpiece

Among the masterpieces of world art, the watercolor "Hare" by Albrecht Dürer is notable for its modesty: small size, restrained colors, simple composition, insignificant plot. If we recall other "natural studies" of the same Dürer, this hare is far from being as entertaining as a deer crowned with antlers, an owl with huge eyes, a dead bird with iridescent plumage, an exotic giant rhinoceros. And yet, it is the “Hare” that to this day beats records of popularity not only among the works of Dürer, but also among works of European art in general.

What has this watercolor captivated us for five centuries?

First of all, let's get acquainted with the "portrayed". This is the most common hare (Lepus europaeus), in Russian it is called a hare, in German - Feldhase (field hare) because of the animal's commitment to open spaces. The original name of Dürer's watercolor is "Feldhase" (or "Junger Hase" - "Hare"), but more often this work is called "Dürer's Hare" - "Dürer-Hase". Moreover, the word "Hare" should be written with a capital letter in all languages, and not just in German, as required by grammar.

Brown hares still live in abundance in Germany, and even 500 years ago it was the most common thing to meet a hare. We have no reason not to trust the legend that Dürer, who loved to walk around Nuremberg, found a sick bunny (according to one version, he saved it from a flood), brought it home, went out and depicted it on a piece of paper. It can be added with confidence that the watercolor was created in summer, as evidenced by the brown fur coat of the “model” - in winter, the hare's fur is much lighter. As evidence that Dürer worked with living nature, an expressive detail is given: a window cover is reflected in the eye of a hare, depicted taking into account the curvature of the surface of the pupil. However, some art critics are skeptical about the blissful legend about the rescued and tamed hare, which obediently posed for Dürer. Most likely, they believe, Dürer worked from memory, and borrowed the spectacular technique of reflecting the window cover in the pupil from Flemish painting. However, whether the hare was a living animal, a hunting trophy or a stuffed animal, he rightfully gained immortality in the art world.

The drawing is masterfully done. “Unsurpassed will be the eye, the sniffing nose, the hanging right ear and the erect left ear, the variety of hairline that is completely different on the ears than on the wet neck and back, not to mention the mustache hairs that look like threads. That highest degree of expressiveness has remained unattainable, when the work appeals not only to the eye of the viewer, but also to the same degree to the sense of touch, so that there is a desire to touch and run back and forth over the wool, ”the German art critic Kuno Mittelshted describes watercolor. The bunny really wants to be stroked. Looking at him, we seem to feel the softness of velvety fur, the warmth of a small body, we feel the pulse beating. We see literally every hair on the skin of a hare, but in Dürer's work there is not even a trace of tedious lifelikeness - this is really life itself!

Let not the whole secret of Durer's charm, but at least some of it is revealed in three words: watercolor, gouache, whitewash. Watercolor, known in the East since ancient times, was still new in Europe at the beginning of the 16th century. Dürer is one of the first European artists who worked in this complex technique, he is called the founder of modern watercolor. A transparent soft watercolor drawing conveys all the richness of the color of a hare coat, here you can count about a dozen shades: ocher-gray, brown, light brown, reddish, beige ... Thousands of hairs are worked out over the fluid watercolor with dense matte gouache, among which there are literally no two identical: they gradually change in thickness and length, depending on how the fur lies on the body of the animal. Scientists have found that with the help of the most advanced computer programs it is impossible to model the skin of a hare better than Dürer did. And finally, thanks to the whitewash laid with jewelry fineness, the body of the animal seems voluminous, the fur - light and shiny.

Albrecht Durer. Hare, 1502.

Paper pasted on cardboard, watercolor, gouache, whitewash, 25.1 × 22.6 cm

Albertina Museum, Vienna

Durer chooses the most winning composition in order to present his "model" in volume. The image is placed diagonally with a three-quarter turn, the artist's gaze is directed from above. Under the fluffy fur coat of a hare, there is a construction - a well-shaped and reasonably folded skeleton, as if we see through the animal.

Peering into nature with the delight of an artist and the equanimity of a scientist, Dürer seems to achieve the impossible: he combines the objectivity and accuracy of the “scientific manual” with emotionality, the utmost detail with the integrity of the image. The hare is alert, sensitive and at the same time trusting. For all its modesty and small size, it is full of peculiar dignity. If you decipher the message that the artist put into this drawing, it would sound something like this: “Here I am, a hare, an inconspicuous creature of God, but I am also a part of this vast, complex, beautiful world, and I have a drop of its harmony and wisdom. Look at me with affection, man, admire me, be kind to me!”

Five centuries of metamorphoses

"Hare", in our opinion, is a work quite traditional in genre and within the framework of animalistics, but for its time it was truly innovative: the artist depicted JUST a hare. The drawing is completely free from religious symbols. This is not a prolific hare - a symbol of voluptuousness, and not a white hare, denoting victory over sensuality, which is depicted at the feet of the Virgin Mary, not a symbol of caution, cowardice, escape from sins, and so on. This is just an animal in itself, seen by the artist without the "packaging" of symbols, as if for the first time.

However, the watercolor, not endowed with symbolic overtones, acquired it regardless of the will of the author. Dürer's hare has become associated with the Easter Bunny over time.

Osterhase. Easter cards and decorations with the image of a Dürer hare, hare figurines and embossed chocolate medals, repeating, with more or less accuracy, the prototype, are an invariable accessory of Easter days.

However, even outside the Easter symbolism, the image of the "Dürer Hare", as they say, went to the people. Here, not only the perfection of the drawing played a role, but also its small size, the possibility of high-quality reproduction; finally, the topic itself is a cute animal that people treat with sympathy. Over the five centuries of its existence, the hare has been copied and reproduced many times by artists. There were times when the image of a Dürer hare in a frame created comfort in almost every German living room. With the development of mass tourism, the hare migrated to covers, bags, mouse pads; turned into figurines of all colors, sizes, materials. The well-known German company "Steiff" at one time produced a soft toy "Dürer's Hare".

As an exorbitantly swollen symbol of popular culture, the famous hare attracted the attention of the modern sculptor Jürgen Hertz, thanks to whom in 1984 a shocking and, of course, impressive sculptural composition "Hare" appeared on the old square in front of the Dürer's house-museum in Nuremberg. On a low granite pedestal lies the torn carcass of a huge hare with a dead amber eye fixed on the sky. The fatty body of the hare is surrounded by fragments of a collapsed box, which has become cramped for her, smaller hares crawl out of the holes in the carcass, either swallowed by the hare and striving for freedom, or devouring it, and most likely both together. Gnawed bones lie in front of the toothy mouth (however, they can also be mistaken for plant stems). The most terrible detail - under the clawed paw, the toes of the person absorbed by the monster are clearly visible. Dürer is reminiscent of the second part of the composition - a tiny figurine of Dürer's hare, mounted on a separate pedestal, polished to a golden sheen. Protesting against the hype around the work, which is undergoing destructive metamorphoses, Hertz also warns us against a consumerist attitude towards nature: in response to violence, it turns innocent animals into dangerous disgusting mutants. The paradox is that the sculpture of Hertz, in turn, became a landmark of Nuremberg, replicated on postcards, while the popularity of Dürer's Hare did not decrease at all.

In 2002, the Hare solemnly celebrated the 500th anniversary and, since the original drawing is in the Albertina Museum in Vienna, returned to Nuremberg in a very unusual way. In the summer of 2003, the grandiose installation "7000 Dürer's Hares", invented by the sculptor Ottmar Hörl, was placed on the Market Square. 7000 green plastic hares, sitting in a strict order, filled the area, which, according to eyewitnesses, resembled either a lawn or garden beds. Unlike Hertz's gloomy sculpture, Hörl's idea of ​​the incessant replication of the Nuremberg masterpiece is interpreted cheerfully and with humor.

It remains to say a few words about the original drawing, which is kept in Vienna as the greatest treasure. The drawing is shown to the audience, alas, infrequently, and recently they have not been taken out even to the most prestigious exhibitions. The condition of the paper and paint pasted on cardboard is such that the "Hare" must observe a strict temperature regime and not be exposed to even low light.

The best copy of the Hare in the world is shown in the halls of the Albertina, and the original can be seen no more than once every 5-10 years. In the spring of this year, the "Hare" participated in the exhibition "Foundation of the Albertina. From Durer to Napoleon ”, but if you were not in Vienna at that time, you should not be upset and wait years until the next appearance of Dürer Hare to fans.

Albertina art historians, in response to complaints, are advised to simply turn on the computer and find an image of Dürer's watercolor on the site http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project. Thanks to the Google Art Project, they say, you can view watercolors in excellent quality to your heart's content without compromising the artwork. You will see every hair, every claw of the hare and the reflection of the window frame in his meek eyes. Well, Durer would probably be pleased ...

Date of creation: 1502.
Type: paper, watercolor and gouache.
Location: Albertina (Vienna).

young hare

Synopsis

A masterpiece of German Renaissance art "Young Hare", authorship Albrecht Dürer, is one of the first works that reveals the theme of nature and the style of the artist. The animal is painted, like the later work A Large Piece of Meadow (1503, Albertina), in a hyper-realistic manner that lends credibility.

The watercolor hare is an example of the detailed realism of the Northern Renaissance, a style that originated in 15th-century Flemish painting. One of the most famous representatives of this trend was Jan van Eyck (1390–1441).

Durer

Albrecht is also known for woodcuts and a number of engravings, which was facilitated by his father, a jeweler. In addition, Dürer has a series of innovative self-portraits behind him, a passion for landscape design, plants and animals that arose during travels in Germany and Italy. Durer's visits to Italy, by the way, gave the master an idea about the popular methods and trends of the Renaissance.

In the works of the painter, one can see a synthesis of ideas and techniques of medieval painting and Renaissance art.

Description of work

Fragment of work

It is still not known whether the "Young Hare" was created entirely in the studio or the author made sketches of the animal in the wild, and then completed the work indoors. Some art historians argue that the reflection of the window frame in the hare's eyes may prove the latter. However, the author is known for using reflections as a method to add extra naturalness and realism to his characters. To many experts, it seems most likely that Dürer used a stuffed animal for coloring after making sketches and notes in the wild.

Of course, the realism of the hare is impressive. To do this, Dürer uses a complex structure and impressive use of chiaroscuro. In addition to highlighting the ears and every hair on the entire torso of the model, he also created the effect of warm golden light that gives vitality to the hare.

Fragment of work

Initially, Dürer created the outline of the figure, and then covered the work with brown paint. Later, using a combination of dark and light strokes, he dyed the fur using watercolors. The next step was to add small details, like a mustache and a reflection of the window in the eyes. After finishing work with watercolor, the master applied a series of gouache strokes to give the fur the necessary structure. Finally, a series of white highlights were added to give the animal more dimension.

Painting "Young Hare" updated: October 23, 2017 by: Gleb

Vladimir Dergachev, photographs by Anton Dergachev

In 1509, Dürer bought this house, where he lived with his wife Agnes, apprentices and students until his death. In 1871, the painter's museum was opened here.

In the house-museum, the artist's exposition is located on four floors.

Albrecht Durer "Nemesis, or Fortune" (1501-1503). Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe. A copy of the painting is exhibited in the house-museum. The engraving "Nemesis" is dedicated to the image of the goddess of justice in the form of a naked winged woman. She, standing on a ball, hovers high above the ground with the attributes of justice. Nemesis with wide hips is far from classical beauty. But in those days, a woman who had everything was considered beautiful - lush hips, breasts and even a stomach.

Numerous "hares" will meet you in Nuremberg, among which the most famous of bronze, resembling a bear, settled down on one of the central squares.

In 1502, Albrecht Dürer picked up a hare in the vicinity of Nuremberg, which became the model of the artist, who was ill at that time. And the marriage was childless. The portrait of a hare impresses with the accuracy of details, realistic transmission of his mood and inner tension.

It was from this picture that the “Dürer Hare” was created, installed on the square near the house-museum.

If you're lucky, the museum will be guided by the artist's wife, Frau Agnes. She will appear before you in a house dress and a cap, with a bunch of keys or a purse of linen, and not only will she tell known facts about her husband's life, but will also share family secrets in secret. Agnes conducts tours only at certain times. If it is missing, you will have to be content with the services of an audio guide. In Germany, excursion service with the participation of costumed guides is not uncommon today.

One of the most famous works of Albrecht Dürer "Adam and Eve" (1507), Prado Museum

Albrecht Durer. Hare, 1502.
Paper pasted on cardboard, watercolor, gouache, whitewash, 25.1 × 22.6 cm
Albertina Museum, Vienna

Among the masterpieces of world art, the watercolor "Hare" by Albrecht Dürer is notable for its modesty: small size, restrained colors, simple composition, insignificant plot. If you recall other "natural studies" of the same Dürer, this hare is far from being as entertaining as a deer crowned with antlers, an owl with huge eyes, a dead bird with iridescent plumage, an exotic giant rhinoceros, a fanged walrus. And yet, it is the "Hare" that to this day beats records of popularity not only among the works of Dürer, but also among works of European art in general. What has this watercolor captivated us for five centuries?

Albrecht Durer. Deer head. 1503

First of all, let's get acquainted with the "portrayed". This is the most common hare (Lepus europaeus), in Russian it is called a hare, in German - Feldhase (field hare) because of the animal's commitment to open spaces. The original name of Durer's watercolor "Feldhase" (or "Junger Hase" - "Hare"), but more often this work is called "Dürer's Hare" - "Dürer-Hase". Moreover, the word "Hare" should be written with a capital letter in all languages, and not just in German, as required by grammar.

Albrecht Durer. Walrus head. 1521

Brown hares still live in abundance in Germany, and even 500 years ago it was the most common thing to meet a hare. We have no reason not to trust the legend that Dürer, who loved to walk around Nuremberg, found a sick bunny (according to one version, he saved it from a flood), brought it home, went out and depicted it on a piece of paper. It can be added with confidence that the watercolor was created in the summer, as evidenced by the brown fur coat of the "model" - in winter, the hare's fur is much lighter. As evidence that Dürer worked with living nature, an expressive detail is given: a window cover is reflected in the eye of a hare, depicted taking into account the curvature of the surface of the pupil. Some art historians, however, are skeptical about the blissful legend about the rescued and tamed hare, which obediently posed for Dürer. Most likely, they believe, Dürer worked from memory, and borrowed the spectacular technique of reflecting the window cover in the pupil from Flemish painting. However, whether the hare was a living animal, a hunting trophy or a stuffed animal, he rightfully gained immortality in the world of art.

Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait. 1500

The drawing is masterfully done. “Unsurpassed will be the eye, the sniffing nose, the hanging right ear and the upright left ear, the variety of hairline, which is completely different on the ears than on the wet neck and back, not to mention the mustache hairs that look like threads. That highest degree of expressiveness has remained unattainable, when the work appeals not only to the eye of the viewer, but also to the same degree to the sense of touch, so that there is a desire to touch and run back and forth over the wool, "- this is how the German art historian Kuno Mittelshted describes watercolor. Bunny we really want to stroke it. Looking at it, we seem to feel the softness of velvety fur, the warmth of a small body, we feel the pulse beating. We see literally every hair on the hare's skin, but in Dürer's work there is not even a trace of tedious lifelikeness - this is really life itself!

Kaysersburg Castle in Nuremberg.
Maybe somewhere here Dürer picked up a hare?

Let not the whole secret of Durer's charm, but at least some of it is revealed in three words: watercolor, gouache, whitewash. Watercolor, known in the East since ancient times, was still new in Europe at the beginning of the 16th century. Dürer is one of the first European artists who worked in this complex technique, he is called the founder of modern watercolor. A transparent soft watercolor drawing conveys all the richness of the color of a hare coat, here you can count about a dozen shades: ocher-gray, brown, light brown, reddish, beige ... Thousands of hairs are worked out over the fluid watercolor with dense matte gouache, among which there are literally no two identical: they gradually change in thickness and length depending on how the fur lies on the body of the animal. Scientists have found that with the help of the most advanced computer programs it is impossible to model the skin of a hare better than Dürer did. And finally, thanks to the whitewash laid with jewelry subtlety, the body of the animal seems voluminous, the fur is light and shiny.

View of Nuremberg from the walls of the Kaisersburg castle

Durer chooses the most winning composition in order to present his "model" in volume. The image is placed diagonally with a three-quarter turn, the artist's gaze is directed from above. Under the fluffy fur coat of a hare, there is a construction - a well-shaped and reasonably folded skeleton, as if we see through the animal.

Dürer's house in Nuremberg, where the artist lived from 1509.

Peering into nature with the delight of an artist and the equanimity of a scientist, Dürer seems to achieve the impossible: he combines the objectivity and accuracy of the "scientific manual" with emotionality, the utmost detail with the integrity of the image. The hare is alert, sensitive, and at the same time trusting. For all its modesty and small size, it is full of peculiar dignity. If you decipher the message that the artist put into this drawing, it would sound something like this: “Here I am, a hare, an inconspicuous creature of God, but I am also part of this huge, complex, beautiful world, and I have a drop of its harmony and wisdom. Look look at me with affection, man, admire me, be kind to me!

Dürer House Museum in Nuremberg

"Hare", in our opinion, is a work that is quite traditional in terms of genre and fits into the framework of animalistics, but for its time it was truly innovative: the artist depicted JUST a hare. The drawing is completely free from religious symbols. This is not a prolific hare - a symbol of voluptuousness, and not a white hare, denoting victory over sensuality, which is depicted at the feet of the Virgin Mary, not a symbol of caution, cowardice, escape from sins, and so on. This is just an animal in itself, seen by the artist without the "packaging" of symbols, as if for the first time.

Chocolate "Hare Durer"

However, the watercolor, not endowed with symbolic overtones, acquired it regardless of the will of the author. Dürer's hare has become associated over time with the Osterhase Easter Bunny. Easter cards and decorations with the image of a Dürer hare, hare figurines and embossed chocolate medals, repeating, with more or less accuracy, the prototype, are an invariable accessory of Easter days.

Dürer's hare, hand-cast from elite chocolate.

However, even outside the Easter symbolism, the image of "Durer's Hare", as they say, has gone to the people. Here, not only the perfection of the drawing played a role, but also its small size, the possibility of high-quality reproduction, and finally, the theme itself - a cute animal that people treat with sympathy. Over the five centuries of its existence, the hare has been copied and reproduced many times by artists. There were times when a picture of a Dürer hare in a frame created comfort in almost every German living room (and such a reproduction hangs above my desk, I often look at it when I compose something)).

With the development of mass tourism, the hare migrated to covers, bags, mouse pads, turned into figurines of all colors, sizes, materials. The well-known German company "Steiff" at one time produced a soft toy "Dürer's Hare".

Dürer Hare. Steif soft toy and souvenir bag

As an exorbitantly swollen symbol of popular culture, the famous hare attracted the attention of the modern sculptor Jürgen Hertz, thanks to whom in 1984 a shocking and, of course, impressive sculptural composition "Hare" appeared on the old square in front of the Dürer's house-museum in Nuremberg. On a low granite pedestal lies the torn carcass of a huge hare with a dead amber eye fixed on the sky. The fatty body of the hare is surrounded by fragments of a collapsed box, which has become cramped for her, smaller hares crawl out of the holes in the carcass, either swallowed by the hare and striving for freedom, or devouring it, and most likely both together. Gnawed bones lie in front of the toothy mouth (however, they can also be mistaken for plant stems). The most terrible detail - under the clawed paw, the toes of the person absorbed by the monster are clearly visible. Dürer is reminiscent of the second part of the composition - a tiny figurine of Dürer's hare, mounted on a separate pedestal, polished to a golden sheen. Protesting against the hype around the work, which is undergoing destructive metamorphoses, Hertz also warns us against a consumerist attitude towards nature: in response to violence, it turns innocent animals into dangerous disgusting mutants. The paradox is that the sculpture of Hertz, in turn, became a landmark of Nuremberg, replicated on postcards, while the popularity of Dürer's Hare did not decrease at all.

Juergen Hertz. Sculptural composition "Hare" in Nuremberg. 1984

In 2002, the Hare solemnly celebrated its 500th anniversary, and since the original drawing is in the Albertina Museum in Vienna, he returned to Nuremberg in a very unusual way. In the summer of 2003, the grandiose installation "7000 Dürer's Hares" was placed on the Market Square, invented by the sculptor Ottmar Hörl. 7000 green plastic hares, sitting in a strict order, filled the area, which, according to eyewitnesses, resembled either a lawn or garden beds. Unlike Hertz's gloomy sculpture, Hörl's idea of ​​the incessant replication of the Nuremberg masterpiece is interpreted cheerfully and with humor.
It remains to say a few words about the original drawing, which is kept in Vienna as the greatest treasure. The drawing is shown to the audience, alas, infrequently, and recently they have not been taken out even to the most prestigious exhibitions. The condition of the paper and paint pasted on cardboard is such that the "Hare" must observe a strict temperature regime and not be exposed to even weak lighting.

Ottmar Hörl. Installation "7000 Dürer's Hares" in Nuremberg. 2003

The best copy of the Hare in the world is shown in the halls of the Albertina, and the original can be seen no more than once every 5-10 years. This spring, the "Hare" participated in the exhibition "The Founding of Albertina. From Dürer to Napoleon", but if you were not in Vienna at that time, you should not be upset and wait years until the next appearance of Dürer's Hare to fans.

$10 coin issued by the British Virgin Islands
in 2010 in the series "Masterpieces of Art" .

Albertina art historians, in response to complaints, are advised to simply turn on the computer and find the image of Dürer's watercolor on the site http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project Thanks to the program "Google Art Project", - they say - you can view watercolors in excellent quality to your heart's content without compromising the work. You will see every hair, every claw of the hare and the reflection of the window frame in his meek eyes. Well, Durer would probably be pleased ...