Image: 17 3/4 x 15 in. (45.1 x 38.1 cm)]]> The photograph of Warhol above, which also appears in Warhol’s Index (Book), implies that he viewed himself as a master printmaker in the tradition of Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), the printmaking great of the Northern Renaissance. Dürer’s monogram, a combination of his initials, A and D, appears at bottom right. Warhol’s unusual jacket offers a second, subtler nod to Dürer. Not only indicative of Warhol’s fashion-forward style, the jacket’s shredded sleeves and high collar also recall the traditional attire of a landsknecht, a type of sixteenth-century German mercenary frequently depicted by Dürer (right).]]> 12 1/16 in High x 8 1/4 in]]>
The idealized human figures, based on works of art, stand in contrast to the careful observation of nature found in his depiction of the animals. Despite their naturalism the animals also embody symbolic meaning. Four of the animals surrounding Eve were associated with the four humors or temperaments: the cat is choleric, the rabbit sanguine, the ox phlegmatic, the elk melancholic. According to medieval tradition the Fall of Man upset the original equilibrium of the humors and afflicted the human race with imbalanced temperaments.]]> God Spoke the Earth: Stories of Genesis in Prints and Drawings, Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 13 - December 7, 2014]]>