Albrecht Dürer's Gedenckbuch and the rain of crosses1

Abstract

Much has been written about Albrecht Durer's life, not least because he made sure that a fertile record of his achievements would be passed on to future generations. Whether consciously or not Durer, like Michelangelo, began to construct his own legacy at a relatively early stage in his career, and because his cult bloomed quickly after his death we have inherited somewhat more than he intended. It can be difficult to distinguish between what Durer wanted us to see and what he did not. The extensive drafts for his treatises were surely meant for posterity, as were the late annotations he made on his earlier drawings. However, given the obsession with incidental monetary details and other mundane aggravations, the diary of his journey to the Netherlands was probably not written for the historical record. Accordingly it is of great value in understanding the day-to-day life of a well-known and observant traveler. But Durer's consciousness of the future was not only that of a successful artist concerned with his posthumous reputation. He was also gripped by the numinous and darkly unknowable determinants of his own destiny. Whether the spare evidence of Durer's private meditations properly belongs to us or not, it has nevertheless become part of his story.