Albrecht Dürer's Young Hare on Google Art Project

Considered to be one of the finest watercolors ever painted, Google Art Project has a nice zoomable scan of Albrecht Dürer's Young Hare from 1502.

From Wikipedia:

The subject was particularly challenging: because the hare's fur lay in different directions and the animal was mottled with lighter and darker patches all over, Dürer had to adapt the standard conventions of shading to indicate the outline of the subject by the fall of light across the figure. Despite the technical challenges presented in rendering the appearance of light with a multi-coloured, multi-textured subject, Dürer not only managed to create a detailed, almost scientific, study of the animal but also infuses the picture with a warm golden light that hits the hare from the left, highlighting the ears and the run of hair along the body, giving a spark of life to the eye, and casting a strange shadow to the right.

(Via Lines and Colors)

• [wysinwyg]

  Duhrer proving once again that he is the all-time master of using tiny, fiddly little lines to create works of great beauty.  I’m constantly startled by the realism of his prints and engravings.  example Look at all the tiny lines then consider the fact that he made dozens of these print blocks of comparable detail.  And apparently he was a hell of a painter too.

  • [Mark Dow]

    Extra points for the example “Knight, Death and the Devil” including a unicorn/goat hybrid!

• [SomeGuyNamedMark]

  I can’t imagine having that much patience.  Was he going off of memory or imagination or a stuffed rabbit?  Couldn’t possibly have been a live one and still captured those details.

• [knoxblox]

  Sadly, despite the time and effort spent on the project, and due to the staggering amount of competition for views on Der Etsy, Durer had to reduce the price of this magnificent work from 1 Ducat down to 3 Groschen. Seems it also wasn’t “whimsicle” enough.

  Seriously, the man had some determination and skill. It appears he put in his 10,000 hours and then some.

  • [Trefunk]

    Imagine the lolcats he could’ve created. LolDürers.

    • [yadayada]

       I sense a new internet meme. Quick, copyright it!

• [Joseph Francis]

  More zoom, please.

  The Botticelli Venus detail available online is quite amazing.

• [pKp]

  I love Google Art Project ! It’s one of these Google products that were forgotten too soon. Having hi-rez images of these masterpieces is just absolutely fantastic.

  • [kiptw]

    Amen that! I just lost an hour wandering through favorite museums looking for favorite pieces.

• [robcat2075]

  Even the whiskers have directional shading on them.

  Maybe he could have sold it for more if the rabbit had been praying.

• [Martin Rusis]

  Ahhh, Durer … however I want to see his engraving of this famous olde worlde folk devil.

• [boloid97]

  You know what else is zoomable?  A single large, downloadable image.   But that would be silly.

• [noah django]

  （｀ー´）ヘヘーン
  Durer was such a boss