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Saint Eustace Albrecht Dürer
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Curator’s description:
Description
The subject-matter is now identified as Saint Eustace (not Saint Hubert, as Ruskin has it, although the two saints' legends are very similar and they are often confused). Reflecting the legend as told in the Golden Legend, the hunstman Eustace kneels beside his source, gazing in devotion at the crucifix which appears between the antlers of the stag which he was hunting. His greyhounds rest beside his horse; a castle stands on top of a rocky pinnacle behind.
First catalogued in 1872, the Saint Eustace was arranged in the second section of the third cabinet in the Rudimentary Series, 'Greek and Mediæval Design', alongside 11 other Dürers (original engravings and woodcuts, and one facsimile), and two photographs after Holbein.
A life-size pen-and-ink copy by George Allen of the plant in the bottom left foreground was included by Ruskin in the Reference Series as no. 148. A wood-engraving of this was reproduced as fig. 74 of "Modern Painters", vol. V, and Ruskin held it as an example of Dürer's 'perfectness of conception, every leaf being thoroughly set in perspective, and drawn with unerring decision' (Modern Painters, vol. V, pt vi, ch. 10, § 19 = VII.126-7). In his 1878 revision of the Rudimentary catalogue, he described Dürer's 'petty, crinkly, wrinkly, knobby and bumpy forms' as due to the rudeness of the German mentality (as compared to the Greek); but that the loss of dignity these caused was compensated for by a gain in interest. The "Saint Eustace", more than any other print, displayed Dürer's 'essential, and therefore pardonable, faults'.
The print's lack of aerial perspective was the focus of Ruskin's discussion in "The Stones of Venice", when he used Dürer's undoubted talents to indicate how a little knowledge could blind a viewer to the virtues of great works of art (Stones of Venice, vol. III, ch. ii, pt 1, §§ 20-21= XI.58-9). It was also one of the few plates by Dürer (along with the "Melencolia"; "Saint Jerome"; and "Knight, Death and the Devil") where the depiction of clothed figures meant that Dürer's depiction of the figure was not 'polluted and paralyzed by the study of anatomy' (The Eagle's Nest, preface = XXII.122). But despite this praise, Ruskin considered that the Saint Eustace was 'uninteresting, apart from the manner of [its] representation' when compared with, say, "Knight, Death and the Devil" (Lectures on Art, § 47 = XX.55-6).
According to Ruskin, the landscape, typical of Dürer's work, was that of his native Franconia (Modern Painters, vol. V, pt. ix, ch. 4, § 9 = VII.305-6).
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Details
- Artist/maker
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Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) (engraver)
- Object type
- Material and technique
- engraving on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 357 x 259 (sheet); 480 x 318 mm (mount)
- Inscription
- In the print, engraved, bottom centre: Dürer's 'AD' monogram
On the mount, recto, top centre, in ink: 77.
On the mount, verso:
bottom left corner, in graphite (recent): Rud | 64
bottom left, in graphite (recent): B 57
bottom, left of centre, the Ruskin School's stamp
bottom, towards right, in graphite (recent): 31
- Provenance
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Presented by John Ruskin to the Ruskin Drawing School (University of Oxford), 1875; transferred from the Ruskin Drawing School to the Ashmolean Museum, c.1949.
- No. of items
- 1
- Accession no.
- WA.RS.RUD.064
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Subject terms allocated by curators:
Subjects
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References in which this object is cited include:
References
Schoch, Rainer, Mende, Matthias, and Scherbaum, Anna, Albrecht Dürer: das druckgraphische Werk, 3 (Munich/London/New York: Prestel, 2001-2004), no. 32
Meder, Josef, Dürer-Katalog, ein handbuch über Albrecht Dürers stiche, radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren zustände, ausgaben und wasserzeichen (Wien: Gilhofer & Ranschburg, 1932), no. 60
Bartsch, Adam von, Le Peintre Graveur, 21 vols (Vienna: J. von Degen, 1803-1821), cat. vol. VII, pp. 73-4, no. 57
Ruskin, John, The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogue of the Rudimentary Series, in the Arrangement of 1873, ed. Robert Hewison (London: Lion and Unicorn Press, 1984), cat. Rudimentary no. 64, RUD.064
Hollstein, F. W. H., German Engravings Etchings and Woodcuts, ca. 1400 - 1700 (Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1954-), cat. vol. VII, p. 53, no. 60
Bartsch, Adam von, The Illustrated Bartsch, founding editor Walter L. Strauss, general editor John T. Spike (New York: Abaris Books, 1978-), no. 1001.57
Ruskin, John, Instructions in Practice of Elementary Drawing, Arranged with Reference to the First Series of Examples in the Drawings Schools of the University of Oxford (n.p., [1872]), cat. Rudimentary no. 64
Ruskin, John, Instructions in the Preliminary Exercises Arranged for the Lower Drawing-School (London: Smith, Elder, 1872), cat. Rudimentary no. 64
Ruskin, John, Instructions in the Preliminary Exercise Arranged For the Lower Drawing-School (London: Spottiswoode, 1873), cat. Rudimentary no. 64
Ruskin, John, ‘Rudimentary Series 1878’, 1878, Oxford, Oxford University Archives, cat. Rudimentary no. 64
Ruskin, John, ‘The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogues, Notes and Instructions’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 21, cat. Rudimentary no. 64
Ruskin, John, ‘The Eagle's Nest: Ten Lectures on the Relation of Natural Science to Art, Given Before the University of Oxfored, in Lent Term, 1872’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 22
Ruskin, John, ‘Lectures on Art: Delivered Before the University of Oxford in Hilary Term, 1870’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 20
Ruskin, John, ‘Modern Painters’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 3-7
Ruskin, John, ‘The Stones of Venice’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 9-11
Location
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- Western Art Print Room
