Study of Two Feet for the Apostle Paul in the Heller Altarpiece

Between 1507 and 1509 Dürer painted a large altarpiece depicting the Assumption of the Virgin and the Coronation of the Virgin for the wealthy cloth merchant Jacob Heller. It was placed in the Dominican church in Frankfurt but was destroyed by fire in 1729. Dürer made several preliminary studies for parts of the painting. Twenty of these have survived, including this famous drawing of two feet for the kneeling apostle Paul at the bottom right of the painting., Around the time of Fra Bartolommeo’s visit to Venice Dürer painted a large altarpiece depicting the Assumption of the Virgin and the Coronation of the Virgin for the wealthy cloth merchant and mayor of Frankfurt Jacob Heller. Mattias Grünewald painted the wings of the tryptich. It was placed in the Dominican church in Frankfurt. Dürer made several preliminary studies for parts of the painting. Twenty of these have survived, including this famous drawing for the kneeling apostle Paul at the bottom right of the painting., Like his Italian contemporaries Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer was a versatile and influential Renaissance artist. He travelled widely, visiting among other places the Netherlands and Northern Italy. In the course of those journeys, he encountered the principles of humanistic philosophy and the innovative artistic idiom of the Early Renaissance. Dürer is best known for his woodcuts and engravings. Prints of his work were widely distributed and had a profound influence on other artists. Between 1507 and 1509, he painted a large panel depicting the Assumption of the Virgin and the Coronation of the Virgin for his patron Jacob Heller, a wealthy textile merchant. It was to form part of an altarpiece for a Dominican church in Frankfurt, but the altarpiece has unfortunately been lost. From his correspondence with Heller, we learn that Dürer spent more than a year preparing the work. He made several studies for various parts of the painting. They were all drawn in the same manner, with a brush and black ink, heightened with white, on paper with a coloured ground. Twenty of these studies have survived, including this famous drawing. It shows the two feet on which Dürer based the feet of the kneeling apostle Paul, at lower right in the centre panel of the Heller Altarpiece. In the drawing, we also see the hem of a cloak over the right foot. [text: Albert Elen]