DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0165
IX.]
durer’s dream.
145
month of December to see the whale that had been stranded
there, and so caught the illness which eventually killed him. In
the British Museum is a drawing of a Walrus’ head also done at
this time. Dtirer was always anxious to see interesting persons
and things and to record them with his pencil. If only he could
come at Martin Luther or any other famous man, he would not
fail to make his portrait for the information of posterity. For
posterity he portrayed so many men, sought out and recorded
so many singular events, and left so many autobiographical and
other notes and records.
Eagerness to observe and record led him to pay attention to
his dreams, many of which he may have described in his lost
common-place book. An account of one of them remains,
written below a sketch, now in the Ambras Collection at Vienna.
It occurred at the time when the agitation and suspense accom-
panying the Reformation were at their maximum in Niirnberg.
Here are the drawing and the dream.
“ In the night between Wednesday and Thursday after Whit-
sunday (30, 31 May, 1525) I saw this appearance in my sleep—
how many great waters fell from heaven. The first struck the earth
about 4 miles away from me with terrific force and tremendous noise,
and it broke up and drowned the whole land. I was so sore afraid
that I awoke from it. Then the other waters fell and as they fell they
were very powerful and there were many of them, some further away,
some nearer. And they came down from so great a height that they
all seemed to fall with an equal slowness. But when the first water
that touched the earth had very nearly reached it, it fell with such
swiftness, with wind and roaring, and I was so sore afraid that when I
awoke my whole body trembled and for a long while I could not
recover myself. So when I arose in the morning I painted it above
here as I saw it. God turn all things to the best.
Albrecht Durer.”
C. D.
IO
durer’s dream.
145
month of December to see the whale that had been stranded
there, and so caught the illness which eventually killed him. In
the British Museum is a drawing of a Walrus’ head also done at
this time. Dtirer was always anxious to see interesting persons
and things and to record them with his pencil. If only he could
come at Martin Luther or any other famous man, he would not
fail to make his portrait for the information of posterity. For
posterity he portrayed so many men, sought out and recorded
so many singular events, and left so many autobiographical and
other notes and records.
Eagerness to observe and record led him to pay attention to
his dreams, many of which he may have described in his lost
common-place book. An account of one of them remains,
written below a sketch, now in the Ambras Collection at Vienna.
It occurred at the time when the agitation and suspense accom-
panying the Reformation were at their maximum in Niirnberg.
Here are the drawing and the dream.
“ In the night between Wednesday and Thursday after Whit-
sunday (30, 31 May, 1525) I saw this appearance in my sleep—
how many great waters fell from heaven. The first struck the earth
about 4 miles away from me with terrific force and tremendous noise,
and it broke up and drowned the whole land. I was so sore afraid
that I awoke from it. Then the other waters fell and as they fell they
were very powerful and there were many of them, some further away,
some nearer. And they came down from so great a height that they
all seemed to fall with an equal slowness. But when the first water
that touched the earth had very nearly reached it, it fell with such
swiftness, with wind and roaring, and I was so sore afraid that when I
awoke my whole body trembled and for a long while I could not
recover myself. So when I arose in the morning I painted it above
here as I saw it. God turn all things to the best.
Albrecht Durer.”
C. D.
IO