018

  • St. Christopher, Facing Left

  • 1521
  • Albrecht Dürer (German 1471-1528)
  • Engraving (Meder A quality)
  • 11.7 x 7.5 cm., 4-5/8 x 3" image
  • Purchased with Funding Assistance from A. Ben Jasper, Mr. and Mrs. George and Pat Olson, Mr. Thomas E. Rassieur, Dr. Erick O. Schonstedt, and Jane Finnicum in memory of Marian E. Finnicum, Augustana College Art Collection, 1993.36

Essay by Helen Reinold, Class of 2011

Albrecht Dürer was a German artist who became one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance. Though he also painted and worked in watercolor, Dürer was most famous during his time for his woodcuts and engravings. He created this engraving, St. Christopher, Facing Left, in 1521. The subject of the engraving is St. Christopher, a third century saint who became popular during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. St. Christopher was the patron saint of travelers, and therefore an appropriate subject for Dürer, who created the print after returning from a year-long journey to the Netherlands. The engraving depicts a popular episode from Christopher's life, in which he unknowingly carried the Christ child across a river. Christopher had decided to serve Christ by helping travelers cross the dangerous river, and was one day approached by a child. He took the child on his shoulders and began to cross the river, but the child grew heavier and heavier as Christopher went along. When they reached the other side of the river, the child told Christopher that he had just carried Christ and the weight of the world.

St. Christopher was traditionally shown as strong and masculine, so he would be physically able to carry the weight of the world. Dürer's Christopher is no exception. Dürer usesd delicate horizontal lines in the landscape and sky to lead the viewer's eye to the larger-than-life saint. In contrast, Christopher is composed largely of diagonal and vertical lines, which cause the eye to travel up to the Christ child. Dürer alludes to the Christ child's holiness by surrounding him with a white halo, created through the absence of line in the sky. Dürer is known for his manipulation of line to make shadows and light. The folds of Christopher's cloak, the bark on his staff, and the waves in the water are created by many individual lines contrasting with the whiteness of the empty space. Dürer often signed his engravings and woodcuts by working his monogram into the image. In this engraving, the monogram and the date, 1521, are visible on a rock in the lower right.