A World of Marvels

By PHILIPPA STOCKLEY

Why is it that children and teenagers who love doing meticulous drawings revere Albrecht Dürer, whom they seem to discover by osmosis? Or what about his strokable Young Hare of 1502, so warm and heavy in its furry contentment that its nose twitches; or his dazzling 1498 self-portrait as a stylish 26-year-old, with hyper-realistic curling long hair.

Those two images are so widely known that it’s no lack that they’re not in the National Gallery’s new blockbuster, Dürer’s Journeys, which has 135 engravings, woodcuts, paintings, drawings, plus some rare diary and journal pages. More than 80 works are by the prolific German genius, others by contemporary Netherlandish masters such as Quinten Massys, Lucas van Leyden, Bernaert van Orley and Jan Gossaert. Most have never been shown here. There are numerous detail-filled engravings, such as St Eustace (c.1500), including wonderful animals with warm weighty bodies and feeling faces — from lions, horses and dogs to snuffling pigs, and even a red-bottomed baboon.