Zoom Into Albrecht Dürer's 'Hase'

Albrecht Dürer is credited with spreading the influence of the Italian Renaissance into northern Europe. His skill as an engraver and a painter rivals any of his contemporaries. His keen observation of nature's forms and functions marks him as more of a Leonardo than a Raphael.

Rendered in watercolor and gouache, his 1502 painting 'Young Hare' (known in German as 'Hase') is regarded as a paragon of observational art, a high-water mark of painterly accuracy. Like Leonardo, Dürer's craft seemed to blend science and art.

The forensic detail of Dürer's hand and eye is demonstrated particularly in his achievement of capturing the hare's fur...

...falling and lifting in different directions around its limbs and muscles.

It's remarkable, too, that the provenance of the drawing can be followed back without interruption to Dürer’s workshop.

The windows of which can be seen upon closer examination reflected in the eyes of the depicted hare.

Though it’s at the very heart of the collection at the Albertina museum in Vienna, Dürer’s famous 'Hase', can only be shown every few years due to its sensitive physical condition.

It is regarded as one of the most important artworks of the Northern Renaissance. 

Want to see more animal portraits? Zoom in to Gauguin's Still Life With Three Puppies