The Koberger Bible and Dürer: Surpassing the Visual Logic of the Middle Age

Lecture of Xinghua Liu at IWH

    On August the 20th, 2019, Xinghua Liu, an expert on the development western books, offered a lecture at IWH.

    Mr. Xinghua Liu is the president of Jia-Xi books co., Ltd. He studied in Europe for ten years and mastered German, French, English and other western languages. He has studied on history of books and art history for many years and is expert in the relevant knowledge of western dated books. In his lecture, Xinghua Liu first introduced the important role of images in the spread of Christianity, depicted the comprehensive relationship between the Catholic Church and religious images from the historical perspective. Then he presented the quantities of books in Germany and of the so-called "cradle" printed books all over Europe in the 9th-15th centuries. He specially emphasized the quick increase of printed books and their social demands after the use of movable metal types printing by Gutenberg.

    Taking the various editions of the Bible as an example, Xinghua Liu explained the structure and art of woodcut illustrations in early printed books. Then he came to the main subject of his lecture, namely the differences between the illustrations of the Koberger Bible in late 15th century and those produced by Dürer in early 16th century. He pointed out that Dürer's composition was influenced by the Koberger Bible in many aspects. Nevertheless, in his presentation of plots such as those in the Apocalypse, Dürer abandoned the method of the Koberger Bible, which presented the narrative of one event by a series of illustrations, and instead put various elements in the heaven and on the earth together, so as to provide a more dynamic presentation of his subjects. Dürer also added humanist elements into his composition, in order to suit the taste of common people. Xinghua Liu finally concluded that this vivid presentation of visual art contributed to the general understanding and support of common people to the reformation of Martin Luther.

    After the lecture, the participants discussed issues such as the humanist elements in early modern German paintings and the varied quantities of printed books in different parts of Europe. These discussions further enhanced our understanding to the role of visual art in the medieval and early modern European history.