1511: Albrecht Dürer

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Source:

Title: ‘Sujet satirique’
Author: -
Publisher: -
Printer: -
Illustrator: Albrecht Dürer
Engraver: -
Location: -
Year: 1511
Links: [Scan].

Comments:

Original in: Musée Bonnat-Helleu (Inventory number: NI 1288). Musée des beaux-arts de Bayonne, 5 rue Jacques Laffitte, 64100 Bayonne, France..

Leon Voet (1955, page 134) states in a review: ‘In feite zien we op de tekening van Dürer zelfs drie ambachtslieden aan het werk: een smid, een drukker, en een bakker. Het geheel is, zoals de begeleidende tekst in Dürer's handschrift duidelijk te kennen geeft, een satyrische allegorie op het beroep van de stadsklerk: de drie genoemde werklieden zijn bezig in massa “eytel missyff”, ijdele brieven en acten, te produceren. De geadresseerde was overigens een stadsklerk van Nuremberg, Dürer’s vriend Lazarus Spengler.’

Shira Brisman (2013, page 287) writes: ‘Dürer’s joke in his rhymed couplet that Spengler’s profession required no more than the rote production of paperwork was the subject not only of a poem but also of a drawing that he made for Spengler as a New Year’s card in 1511. ... At the top of the drawing is Dürer’s handwriting: “Eyttel missÿff: dÿ werden do gschmit, truckt vnd pachen. Im 1511 jor. A.D.??” (= Superb missives are here cast, printed, and baked in the year 1511). Beneath the image he addresses Spengler: ‘Liber Lasarus Spengler! Ich schick vch do den fladen. Grosser vnmus halben hab jch jn nit er pachen mügen. Lat jn ewch also woll gefallen’ (= Dear Lazarus Spengler, I am sending you herewith the cake which for lack of leisure I could not bake before. Enjoy it!). With these words Dürer likens his drawing to a baker’s confection, just as the drawing itself portrays Spengler’s craft, the preparation of correspondences, as raw dough for the oven.’

Technique:

Sketch/illustration: pen and ink.

Publications

Shira Brisman (2013). ‘The image that wants to be read: an invitation for interpretation in a drawing by Albrecht Dürer.’ Word & Image, 29(3), 273-303.

Falconer Madan (1924) ‘Early representations of printing-presses (1499-1600)’. The Bodleian quarterly record. 4 (1923-5), pp 165-7. (Illustration 25).

Alan May (2015) ‘Albrecht Dürer’s drawing of a printing press: a reconsideration.’ Journal of the Printing Historical Society, New series, 22. pages 62-80.

Ray Nash (1947) Dürer’s 1511 Drawing of a Press and Printer. Cambridge: Harvard College Library. (Reviewed by: F.C. FRANCIS (1948). Reviews. The Library, s5-II(4), pages 293-294.)

Nigel Roche (2000) The iconography of the printing office to 1700. Unpublished MA thesis. Library and Information Studies, University College London. (Illustration #D).

Leon Voet (1955), ‘Ray Nash: Dürer’s 1511 drawing of a press and printer.’ (Review). De Gulden Passer, jaargang 33, page 134.