Skeptical readers - preferably acquainted with the basics of kabbalah (or qabalah, cabala, whatever spelling you prefer) - will probably reject the propositions from the following discourse, since they can easily prove that there is no ground for such a speculation claiming that Durer knew the kabbalistic dogma and employed it vigorously in his work. True, Durer nowhere leaves any explicit statements of his knowledge of these matters. But this is hardly a proof of his ignorance of the subject. If he did not proclaim it publicly, no wonder, he wanted to keep it privately, better he was spreading the wisdom by far better means than blabbing, through his work. But note, that he is not standing out of the context of his time or his company of Renaissance artists/scientists. This are the times when the self-centered perception of the Christian western culture is shattered and the horizons necessarily had to be widened in order to find again the Ideal. Greek philosophy and especially Neoplatonism was a fashion, interest in kabbalah propagated by Pico della Mirandola, many other religious systems were investigated. In 1517 Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522) published De Arte Cabalistica, a work that became Christian cabbalist's Bible. This book, which in its form resembles Plato's Timaeus, gives the basics of kabbalah that Christian scholars managed to pull out of the Jewish kabbalists. To be sure, the only interest of insecure Christians was to show that their dogma is confirmed also by kabbalah. Durer is also a man of investigation, he was very much in love with proportions, which is obvious from his books like De Symmetria Partium in Rectis Formis Humanorum Corporum, where like a surgeon, he sections every part of the human body in terms of proportions. Proportions and geometry can be closely related to kabbalah (but not in likeness of the so called "sacred geometry") where the whole didactic system is built on logic of abstract numbers or letters. Numbers or letters, because in ancient times Aleph was also number 1, Beth 2, and so on, and if an architect wanted a house to be 44 cubits wide, he wrote DM (Daleth, Mem) for 4+40 = 44. But DM also means 'Blood' in Hebrew, and besides just describing a measure it can also be something said. The quality of the story is, as always, depending only on the insight of the scribe.
Below are described the four engravings in relation to the Tree of Life, considered in this aspect as a fundamental kabbalistic sketch of the "plan of work", called - the path of initiation. Four engravings fit the four stations along the Middle Pillar, each denoting a particular stage or crisis on the way of an adept.
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| Albrecht Durer, The Fall of Man, 1504, dim. 25.1x19.4 cm |
The Fall of Man, represents the lowest, tenth, sephira of the Tree of life, called Malkuth, Kingdom, which is also the sphere of the Four Elements. This sephira is sometimes considered as the Daughter or the Bride, and Durer's partial identification with Eve is obvious or is Eve a very ugly woman, which she shouldn't be since she is Botticelli's Venus. The Tree of Life is divided in three pillars, like Eden is divided on Adam, Tree of Life with a Serpent, and Eve. This unfortunate trinity is a promise of troubles: nakedness is a sin, so let's get dressed. A desire becomes the ruler of the world and the most respected initiator. Note, that the God's name that rule Malkuth is Adonay, which is also another name for the Holy Guardian Angel.
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| Albrecht Durer, Knight, Death and Devil, 1513, dim. 25x19.2 cm |
Knight, Death, and Devil is a curios representation of the paths that lead to the sphere of Redeemer, Tipharet, Beauty. There are three paths from below that lead to the the sixth sphere: Nun, Samekh, and Ayin. Traditionally every letter of Hebrew alefbeth correspond to a Tarot trump, but there is no record that Durer was familiar with these correspondences, there is not even an evidence of a tarot deck with Hebrew letters printed on trumps from that time, but still they are precisely correct as we know them: Nun relates to trump XIII-Death, Samekh to XIV-Art, and Ayin comes with XV-The Devil. These are the three paths that lead to the innermost sanctuary of the Solomon's Temple, the Holy of Holies: mortification - endurance - excess.
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| Albrecht Durer, St. Jerome in His Study, 1514, dim. 24.8x18.8 cm |
St. Jerome in His Study represents the sixth sephira Tiphareth, Beauty. It represents the High Priest in the in the innermost sanctuary, a cubical Devir or Holy of Holies in the Temple of Solomon, receiving the oracle from above. From the alchemical point of interpretation it is the philosopher's stone, the stone of the wise. In terminology of Abraham the Jew this represents the 'Knowledge and Conversation of Holy Guardian Angel', the prime goal of every adept. But not to be confused with the Father, this sephira is the sphere of Son, who has to marry the Daughter in order to become the King, and she the Queen. The dog represents Yesod, the sephira below Tiphareth, while the lion is a symbol of Tiphareth.
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| Albrecht Durer, Melencolia I, 1514, dim. 24.1x18.9 cm |
Melencolia I. So much heavier trial awaits, that the initiation in Tiphareth seems a mere preparation for the final journey some though to be impossible to undertake as a living being. What to do now? How to make a move, forward or backward, anywhere, since the present condition is unbearable? No books to read, no manuals or instructions to be found in teachers, just you and your Holy Guardian Angel that operates in spheres beyond your facility of comprehension. Kether, the primum mobile is shining in the distance, ladders leading above, clearly indicate that "the Way" is known, but precisely the knowledge of this is somehow useless. An impossible situation to sustain ... Alone in the dark and gloom, but the promise is life.
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Durer’s engravings as stations of Tree of Life |
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