Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist

Journal of Albrecht Durer, 1498

I, Albrecht Durer, will preserve what I feel today in indelible colors. I stand pompous, extravagantly dressed, back to where I have always belonged. I may seem ostentatious now, with the artistic splendor I am bestowed with, more refined. Yet it was at Venice where I found inner tranquility of being an artist. I shall paint now as my imaginations will sweep with the aura of nature around me and my skills shall gain more strength. I will rejoice today to celebrate the liberty of an artist that I had experienced in Italian culture with the hope to awaken same liberation amongst natives of my land. I shall portray myself to depict the worth of a piece of art, the spectacle that a mere smear of color on canvas could create.

I may seem imprudent to Nuremberg for here I stand now almost 26, still lost in youthful abandon. Yet, I feel the looming prospect of gaining all or losing what I have today. I shall leave behind flamboyant self and will accept what is to come in the future. The responsibilities that lay on my shoulders seem more pronounced now for I shall have to act as an instigator to art amongst my people. Shall I be able to bring the enough aesthetic sense required by my work or my art shall go unnoticed? My artwork will perhaps reach the autonomous form like that of Martin Schongauer, for I intend to bring in Italian splendor to my innate compassion towards art (Wisse, October 2002).

This self-portraiture shall remind me what a connoisseur I have to become with colors and canvas alone. I may appear careless, yet a part in me had also been sentient to initiate the Renaissance of art and culture in Nuremberg, the grandeur of which I have witnessed in Italy.

I shall use wood panel to provide a suitable canvas to my portraiture. Oil paints with the extravagant use of shades and strokes to provide a proper composite that is required by the work shall be my choice. I shall use colors and miniature strokes to provide details that shall be eclipsed by my frontal presence. A window thrust wide open with a flat plane shall act as a focal to draw attention towards Inntal Valley. The grandeur presented by snowcapped Simmering Mountains shall be preserved forever with the portrait.

The pellet shall be colorful and choice of color shall be careful, depicting the nature's call for highlighting each contour and facial expression of the artist within me. The attire will present pictorial sense for the amateurs, who shall see my work while a collector shall witness the proportion and geometric perfection of the human form sketched on the paper (Ashcroft, 2012).

The work shall portray light and color infused to take an indelible form, which shall show the power of Venetian art that I had managed to learn in last two years (1494-1495) in Italy. The arrogant posture shall remind the natives of my work as an artist. They shall learn to see the artist with the same importance as any theologian or a scholar as every artwork is a masterpiece in its own confinements.

I shall dress me in fine silk shirt with refined gold embroidery. A cloak shall be wrapped up on my arm with careful choice for hand posture. Nuremberg silk gloves shall be there to cover the hands themselves which shall provide a royalty needed by an artist in his work. The golden lock of curls for hair and unusual, tasseled black and white draped hat on head shall provide the haughty profile needed to make the portrait standout. Since window would be left open, so the silken olive skin shall be highlighted by traces of light falling on each facial expression. The self- portraiture shall show youth and artistic intellect under one frame.

As the fifteenth century draws to an end, I fear that my German estate would lag behind other nations. I now approach a sovereign identity to what I am and what I can be to my society. Nuremberg might not yet know the true power of an artist but posed in Italian costume and sketched up in the haughty profile and I would try to show the true strength of my work. Yes, the critiques might see my work inspired by an Italian culture but I feel pride in portraying myself as an artist worthy of appreciation as any great Venetian artist.

My hands engloved in doesilk clearly displays my Nuremberg origin; this self-assurity may seem imprudent to some because they can not see from the sight of an artist. I must add here that starting as an artist amongst the natives will be a great challenge. Painting a self-portraiture will depict the original strength of humanity and celebrate the liberty of nature. This obvious monogram will not only discern me as a true artist from any other person but in fact it will depict the true form of humanization (Koerner,1993).

Art, culture and nature are all inter-related, where there is nature there is a way to express the beauty of it. I paint myself today to represent that any form of art is valuable and noble. There is something Holy about painting one's own self. I must now approach art to perfection and draw up human figure in ideal geometry and dimensions.

This self-portraiture shall truly show how self-assured I am of my abilities, of the nobility of my profession yet it will signify how I see myself from now on. The looming mountainous terrain at back window will suggest the ultimate beauty of what I have learned as an artist in the past and what I will have to gain in the future. Yet, I aim to conquer this challenge I face in imminent future for what I feel within me is completely Holy.

As I paint me today, I must admit, that I feel impending significance to establish me as an artist amongst the locals. It is important to rekindle true form of art and establish German supremacy in the cultural arena and regional art of Europe. The Men's Bath House painted by me in 1496 merely signifies the artistic skills such as the outline of objects, the details provided through shading, the textural details confinement for any object and form of any object that should be clear in black and white medium. I intend to paint me today with the same vigour of an artist yet the techniques could be increased manifold through proper shading. Each smear of color and each stroke of oil-paint will come up with something new for expressing what I feel within me today.