Art Blogs & Durer

A new favourite blog - "Art Blog by Bob" - three years or so of thoughts on art, beautifully illustrated. I am even pondering on printing out a few months. It would make a tremendous book. Indeed, it could be used as the basis for a novel it seems to me.

As I am still reading about Rudolf II in Prague at the end of the Sixteenth Century, Durer has figured in my recent thinking about art. As a teenager I used to do detailed pen and ink copies of works by Durer, at least in outline (I didn't bother with all the cross hatching). But I knew little about him and indeed still don't really.

Melencolia I (1514). Perhaps this isn't as negative an image as commonly thought. It is usually interpreted as being a tragic genius overwhelmed by frustration and despair, surrounded by a disorderly array of instruments and with the wings of time on her back. But maybe it really shows her in a state of visionary trance, inspired and protected by the spirit of Saturn.

Durer's Self portrait. Always one of my favourites (especially in comparison with other portraits of the period). So direct

I love pictures like this - such wonderful detail

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I used to attempt pictures like this all the time - there is a great skill in showing folds in cloth.

St Jerome - given my current interest in translation, an appropriate image. He looks stuck on some subtle point?

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Ghirlandaio's St Jerome - also seem to be finding translation difficult