St Simon

Between 1514 and 1526, Albrecht Dürer made a series of small engravings of five of the Christian Apostles: St Paul and St Thomas (both 1514), St Bartholemew and St Simon (1523) and finally St Philip (1526).

St Simon, sometimes known as Simon the Zealot, was one of the more obscure apostles of Jesus. He was traditionally martyred by being sawn in half.

In this engraving, the artist has dispensed with the medieval tradition of the halo, concentrating instead on the apostle’s grave dignity and the terrible specter of his attribute, the bucksaw of his martyrdom. At this point in Dürer's career, his religious subject matter was entirely biblical, probably in response to his admiration of Martin Luther, whose scripturally-based arguments against the traditions of the Roman Church led the city of Nuremberg to adopt the Protestant reforms in 1525. Dürer hesitated, however, about bringing out the final print of St Philip due to misgivings over the depictions of saints.

Erwin Panofksy calls this print and the St Bartholemew (Te Papa 1952-0003-151) examples of the 'corrugated style', where simplified forms are contrasted with complicated systems of prominences and indentations so that the whole gives the impression of a compact massif broken up into big tablelands, craggy rocks and deep ravines. In other words, the print has a monumental dignity that belies its tiny size. This style is seen on a far larger scale in the so-called Four Apostles (1526; Alte Pinakothek, Munich), Dürer's last major painting. Their austerity and deep seriousness reflects his new commitment to Protestantism.

See: Web Gallery of Art, https://www.wga.hu/html_m/d/durer/2/13/5/099.html

Dr Mark Stocker, Curator Historical International Art                             December 2016