DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.60474#0013
placed, but all this is out weighed by the light and colour to which the young
artist abandoned himself, giving these sketches, which are perhaps austerely
executed a predominant tone of delicate green-blue, exquisite in its freshness.
And when in the background, far away beyond the buildings, the meadows and
the hills Durer softens the colours until they melt into aerial distance, all the dis-
jointed parts of the picture seem to merge into perfect unity.
Travel widened his outlook. The road to Venice led him over the Brenner
pass through Innsbruck. After turning aside into Pusterthal he went down the
Eisackthal, through Klausen into Trient seeing Arco and lake Garda on the way.
He saw the wonder of the snow-topped mountains when he passed beneath the
alps and the sight must have been a revelation to him. He climbed to greater
heights in the mountains than did other travellers to Italy and this was in part
why distance had for him coherence and unity compared with the gothic artist
who from their lower elevation saw only, as it were, a vertical section of any scene.
To the son of the franconian hills whose soft outlines merge imperceptibly
into the woods the powerful structure of the dolomite-landscape with its nudity
and its clear-cut contrasts of height and depth must have appeared stupendous.
Where small detail looses in importance, by comparison with the rocky masses,
the atmosphere, composed of light and colour, begins to gain in power. Durer
felt the blue of the southern sky, the radiancy of its myriad colours more intense-
ly than did any Italian or even Venetian. It gives the cool general tone to many
of these sketches where the colours harmonize into perfect unison. Who before
Dtirer saw the atmosphere to be filled with colour, to be in perpetual motion,
living, almost plastic? In contrast to the gray brown tones of the bare rock
supporting the hill-fortress of Arco the blue has a brilliant translucency and the
green of the near heights has a reach deep quality brought out by that crystal
atmosphere.
It was no chance that led Durer when he was sketching in watercolour to seat
himself where water added to the scene by holding a mirror to its beauty. His
eye at that time must have had a heightened and intensified sensibility to the
most delicate light-effect and the fine tones of every shadow. The wide expanse
of the amphitheatre surroundingTrient is enveloped in a mesh of shifting brown
green shades. In the distance the blue changes into pink and lilae and purple,
then merges into gold; the mists which melt before the rising sun are a shimmer-
5
artist abandoned himself, giving these sketches, which are perhaps austerely
executed a predominant tone of delicate green-blue, exquisite in its freshness.
And when in the background, far away beyond the buildings, the meadows and
the hills Durer softens the colours until they melt into aerial distance, all the dis-
jointed parts of the picture seem to merge into perfect unity.
Travel widened his outlook. The road to Venice led him over the Brenner
pass through Innsbruck. After turning aside into Pusterthal he went down the
Eisackthal, through Klausen into Trient seeing Arco and lake Garda on the way.
He saw the wonder of the snow-topped mountains when he passed beneath the
alps and the sight must have been a revelation to him. He climbed to greater
heights in the mountains than did other travellers to Italy and this was in part
why distance had for him coherence and unity compared with the gothic artist
who from their lower elevation saw only, as it were, a vertical section of any scene.
To the son of the franconian hills whose soft outlines merge imperceptibly
into the woods the powerful structure of the dolomite-landscape with its nudity
and its clear-cut contrasts of height and depth must have appeared stupendous.
Where small detail looses in importance, by comparison with the rocky masses,
the atmosphere, composed of light and colour, begins to gain in power. Durer
felt the blue of the southern sky, the radiancy of its myriad colours more intense-
ly than did any Italian or even Venetian. It gives the cool general tone to many
of these sketches where the colours harmonize into perfect unison. Who before
Dtirer saw the atmosphere to be filled with colour, to be in perpetual motion,
living, almost plastic? In contrast to the gray brown tones of the bare rock
supporting the hill-fortress of Arco the blue has a brilliant translucency and the
green of the near heights has a reach deep quality brought out by that crystal
atmosphere.
It was no chance that led Durer when he was sketching in watercolour to seat
himself where water added to the scene by holding a mirror to its beauty. His
eye at that time must have had a heightened and intensified sensibility to the
most delicate light-effect and the fine tones of every shadow. The wide expanse
of the amphitheatre surroundingTrient is enveloped in a mesh of shifting brown
green shades. In the distance the blue changes into pink and lilae and purple,
then merges into gold; the mists which melt before the rising sun are a shimmer-
5