Happy Birthday Albrecht Durer born May 21, 1471The Young Hare (1502) by Durer rendered alm

Happy Birthday Albrecht Durer born May 21, 1471

The Young Hare(1502) by Durer rendered almost with photographic precision of a hare against a plain ground influenced Hans Hoffmann’s A Hare in the Forest (1585). According to the Getty Gallery Label, Hoffmann having seen the Durer watercolor in Nuremburg, convinced Emperor Rudoph II to acquire it for his Kunstkammer. Hoffmann imaginatively created a forest that included an array of detailed plants, flowers and insects which would not have co-existed in nature. 

German Artist, Sigmar Polke, made this silhouette of Durer’s Hare using elastic band  in 1970 after his own painted version Durer Hare from 1968. Durer’s charming Hare, which has continued to affect and influence for more than five hundred years is a wonderful example of the lasting legacy of a great artist and the relevance of art history for a contemporary audience.