Museum HW

Raegan Stewart

Cindy Stockton-Moore

Drawing II

            Today upon visiting the museum I found myself weirdly excited to see the Albrecht Durer exhibit, as I found my way in I began noticing that it is majority wise more sketch like drawings which I think is a great experience since it’s not very often that you can truly appreciate the hand of someone’s work. The individual lines that comprise to make the entire piece. I sat myself down in front of Venus riding on a Dolphin created in 1503. This particular piece features a nude Venus looking at the audience by peering over her shoulder, holding a bouquet like thing in her hand with a blind folded cherub shooting a bow and arrow on top. She is riding on a “dolphin” that looks like a Chinese parade dragon.

            The most amazing thing about seeing it in person is really getting to appreciate the lightness of Durer’s hand and the control he uses to execute each stroke. Every line serves a defining purpose and though many lines are similar, as for shading purposes, each line is different in some manner or another; wither weight or direction or length. This giving each line a life of it’s own- this though does not subtract from their cohesiveness. Durer’s line work also seems to of been applied so gently since (from as close as I was allowed to get) there seemed to be no indentation into the paper from any strokes. Also revealed by the strokes is his wide range of ability, since he is able to successfully use controlled short strokes in his shading and very whimsical long strokes in the bouquets, hair, and especially in the explosion in the upper right hand corner.

            Overall this piece has a daunting mystical presence to it, I felt so instantly drawn in by the strength of the characters present, each one demanding equal amounts of my attention, my eye traveled from Venus to the cherub and his arrow led to me the dragon who’s body led me back to Venus- creating this perfect triangle of activity. The piece also held it’s own in the exhibit, in my opinion, one of his more interesting pieces due to it’s mystically.