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| Albrecht Durer, Adam and Eve, 1504, dim. 25.1x19.4 cm |
The first engraving, The Fall of Man (1509), represents Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, before the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil entwined with the serpent. This opening Biblical scene seems as a metaphor of the beginning of a journey foreshadowed, which will gradually unfold through other engravings. The figures of Adam and Eve closely resemble Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s famous Venus and it seems that Dürer paid homage to the Renaissance in general. Above Dürer’s typical signature on the cartellino–he uses Latin inscription for the first time–is resting a parrot as if he hu-morously wanted to say that he presents only what he has seen or been told, like a parrot mimicking the original without an interference of his own interpretation, which could be naturally only partly true. I think that this notion is emphasized by the iconography itself, because it appears as if Dürer masterfully assembled the composition from the pieces cut out from the history, perhaps recognized on one of his journeys to Italy. The amusing thing is that Durer’s principle is completely postmodern; his collage of respected zeitgeist icons produces additional level of experience and becomes a new, original artifact, in his case, a masterpiece. Panofsky observes that Dürer wanted to present to a Northern public the ideal of a male and a female body in proportions and in pose. However, we may add that if the male body is perfectly executed, the female ideal of Eve is somehow masculinized, especially her face seems a bit like Dürer’s own, and her body is not as graceful as Botticelli’s original.
On the other hand, Adam from the engraving also resembles Mercury from Botticelli’s La Primavera, but this time he is not holding a caduceus in his hand but a branch of the mountain ash in the shape of a sling. I realized that what we see are not Mars and Venus as the typical masculine and feminine archetypes but Mercury and Venus. Mercury is of course a messenger of the gods and he is bringing important news to the soul symbolized by Venus. The message is about “the initiation” and the way that awaits the soul or incarnated nymph, symbolized by Venus, on the way to perfection.
1504 is the year that celebrates a hundredth anniversary of the birth of the famous Leon Battista Alberti (1404 - 1472). Alberti is one of the most intriguing figures of the Renaissance, a perfect combination of art and science seems to be the topic that interested him most.
According to Panofsky1, Durer learned, imitated, and elaborated the theory of perspective from Alberti. He wrote many books on art (like De statua or De pictura) and science. His masterpiece is also a treatise Ten Books on Architecture. With a bit of energized enthusiasm, ALberti could be considered as the father of Renaissance. A very lucid analysis of one of the strangest books, mysteriously called Hypnerotomachia Poliphili done by Liane Lefaivre2 suggests that Alberti was also guilty for this book that famous Aldus printed. A truly gnostic, he was also capable of such wonders like Canis (The Dog) or Musca (The Fly), and a cryptographic system that was used until WW2. However, we will try to show that Durer loved him a lot.
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detail of the tablet bearing the inscription ALBERT9 |
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The whole scenario is encoded on the small cartollino that Durer used as a signature plate on many engravings. The most curious is the first line: ALBERT9. This is the only time that Durer used this variant of his name, Albrecht. Art dictionaries and various catalogue entries read this as ALBERTUS, equating 9 with 'US' without explaining why. Furtheremore, this proposition is also inconsistent with the second line where DVRER should be spelt as DVRER9 (in case of lack of space on the tablet) or DVRERVS. The third line, NORICVS, is the first that bears the ending 'VS', furthermore confusing this inscription. None of the three lines is consistently writting the ending 'VS', so it is possible that something special is encoded, and the basic text is manipulated in order to get the intended values of the words. According to the simple values of Latin letters 9 corresponds to I. Thus the inscription says ALBERTI not ALBERTUS. It is probably not a coincidence that ALBERTI and DVRER have the same gematric values in Masonic code:
ALBERTI = 1+12+2+5+18+20+9 = 67
DVRER = 4+22+18+5+18 = 67
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| The main composition is ruled by a circle, a triangle, and a square. A circle and a square have the same area. |
After both names, ALBERTI and DVRER, comes NORICVS with the value 100, which is also encoding the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Alberti. Both names, ALBERTI and DVRER, together are 67+67 = 134, the number that also manifests itself in the geometric composition. Figuratively, this number represents a circle, a triangle, and a square, or the so called Seal of Hermes, which was during Renaissance widely used for the sacral compositions. Durer 'squared the circle' in such manner that they both have the same area. The two interweaving triangles (Solomon's Seal) represent a similar concept as expressed in Sri-Yantra, where the female and male principle gradually inter-penetrate, copulate. Two Greek words relevant for the context are ΚΟΙΤΟΣ, coitus and Ό ΚΟΣΜΟΣ, cosmos, both having the gematric value 670, which is a synonym of 67. Like in case of Poliphilo, an anti-hero of supposed Alberti's work Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Durer is by Alberti erotically aroused. This is perhaps even more obvious if we consider the image of Adam in the likeness of Alberti, whereas Eve is Durer in disguise. Such a travesty is not an exception in Durer's opus, for he transformed himself into woman also in Melencolia.
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Adam, Alberti's self portrait from a plaque, Eve, and the figure of Melencolia I |
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In 1504, hundred years after Alberti's birth, another masterpiece was completed - Michelangelo's David. This is a strange coincidence, since Michelangelo's David and Durer's Adam share much resemblance in appearance, both venerating Vitruvian perfection of proportions, and we can be sure that the artists were much more connected than art historians can trace. Perhaps, they both wanted to embody the spirit of Grand Master Leon Battista Alberti for his hundredth birthday.
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| Projection grid of 22x17 modules |
The main dimensions of the engraving does not fit well into any metrical system of that time. Durer was a master of composition and in such cases a module that 'rules' this composition needs to be discovered. Main ideas and the signature of the magician are often encoded in such underlying layer of the artwork. These are variously described by different sources3 - ranging from 194-196 mm for the width, and 251-253 mm for the height. The difference of the measurements seems to occur, since the smaller ones measure the engraved rectangle, while the others measure the printing block, and the difference is about 1 mm on all sides. The diagonal of the engraving is around 32 cm, which seems to be exactly one foot4. Both relations, 253x196 and 251x194 mm are very close to ratio 22:17, which seems to represent the base projection grid. Both numbers come from Pell's Series and/or Fibonacci Numbers.
| Pell series approximating geometry of an octagram: |
| 1 |
3 |
7 |
17 |
41 |
99 |
239 |
577 |
1393 |
... |
| 1 |
4 |
9 |
22 |
53 |
128 |
309 |
746 |
1801 |
... |
| Fibonacci series approximating geometry of a pentagram: |
| 1 |
5 |
6 |
11 |
17 |
28 |
45 |
73 |
118 |
... |
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22 |
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A diagonal of the rectangle 22:17 equals 28 modules by approximation, which coincides also with a string of numbers from the fifth of Fibonacci progressions: 1 - 5 - 6 - 11 - 17 - 28 - 45 ... These three numbers - 17, 22, and 28 - combined give the same idea as proposed by the interpretation of the tablet bearing inscriptions. All three together equal 17+22+28 = 67, or a gematric signature of a magician DVRER, and a dedication to master ALBERTI who share the same gematric value. The seventh number from the Pell progressions, 45, or the sum of the width and the diagonal of the engraving, 17+28 = 45, is describing the title of the engraving:
ADAM UND EVE = 90 = 2 x 45
Hebrew transcription of Adam = אדם = 1+4+40 = 45.
Bibliography:
Erwin Panofsky, The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer, Princeton, 1995.
Liane Lefaivre Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, MIT Press, 1997.
Peter Strieder, Albrecht Durer, Abaris Books, 1982.
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