Die Macht der Filmischen Imagination bei Albrecht Dürer

Sažetak

The article explores the fundamental qualities of imagination in the works
of Albrecht Dürer, with a focus on a specific sheet from his cycle of illustrations
in the biblical Apocalypse series – the woodcut titled The Strong Angel.
Our analysis builds on the insights of media historian Jörg Jochen Berns,
who identified the presence of a “film before the film” in the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance. This concept refers to an “inner film” that responds to
external stimuli – from the “outer film” – allowing the observers to immerse
themselves in holy images, particularly during prayer, through the stimulation
of their imagination.
In the context of the biblical Apocalypse, the Strong Angel is a metaphor for
vision; at the same time, it requires considerable imaginative power from the
artist (Dürer) to depict such a scene. An angel appears to St John, giving him
a book of visions that St John must “devour” to keep them hidden. For our
research, which involves interpreting this work through the medium of film,it was essential to highlight a key discovery in this illustration: the montage
process that interconnects the elements of The Strong Angel. This connection
is crucial for interpreting the Angel as a messenger from heaven, linking the
divine to the earthly, the sacred to the profane, and the corporeal (human
head) to the material (pillars).
We examined the imaginative potential in Dürer’s work through the perspective
of image theorist Ludwig Schwarte and interpreted Dürer’s art as imagination-
stimulated and produced by intuition, in which the observer actively
participates in the scene. Assuming that the inner film existed in the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance as a prayerful and visionary imagination manifest
in the given examples, we juxtaposed it with the measurement of sensory
stimuli, and thus with the physiognomic discovery of the early 19th century
as interpreted by Jonathan Crary.