Two seated lions

The sketchbook described as 'mein büchlein' [my little book] in Dürer’s journal is among the most famous documents of his activity as a draughtsman during his journey through the Netherlands from July 1520 to July 1521; the sketchbook’s pages were covered with a white ground so that the artist could draw in them ‘mit den stefft’, i.e. with silverpoint. The technique dates back to the Middle Ages and produced a delicate, precise line while demanding a very sure hand because of the impossibility of any corrections. Today, the sketchbook is no longer intact and its pages divided among various collections; the reconstruction of the original order of the pages is an appealing, though never fully soluble, object of art historical enquiry. Dürer must have drawn the lions during his excursion to Ghent in April 1521: ‘Afterwards, I saw the lions and portrayed one with my silverpoint’. If we are to take Dürer's words literally, the sheet shows two views of the same animal. The Albertina in Vienna also houses a silverpoint drawing of a lion with the notation ‘zugent’ [in Ghent].