- The Praying Hands
- Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny
village near
Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order to merely keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood.
Despite their seemingly hopeless condition,
two of Albrecht
Durer the Elder's children had a dream.
They both wanted to
pursue their talent for art, but they knew
full well that their
father would never be financially able
to send either of them
to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.
- After many long discussions at night in
their crowded bed, the two boys
finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The
loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the
academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary,
also by laboring in the mines.
- They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning
after church.
Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg.
Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next
four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht's etchings, his
woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of
his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was
beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works.
When the young artist returned to
his village, the Durer family
held a festive dinner on their lawn to
celebrate Albrecht's
homecoming. After a long and memorable
meal, punctuated
with music and laughter, Albrecht rose
from his honored
position at the head of the table to drink
a toast to his
beloved brother for the years of sacrifice
that had enabled
Albrecht to fulfill his ambition. His closing
words were, "And
now, Albert, blessed brother of mine,
now it is your turn. Now
you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your
dream, and I will
take care of you."
All heads turned in eager expectation to
the far end of the table
where Albert sat, tears streaming down
his pale face, shaking
his lowered head from side to side
while he sobbed and repeated, over
and over, "No ...no ...no ...no."
Finally, Albert rose and wiped the tears
from his cheeks. He
glanced down the long table at the faces
he loved, and then,
holding his hands close to his right
cheek, he said softly, "No,
brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg.
It is too late for me. Look
... look what four years in the
mines have done to my hands!
The bones in every finger have been smashed
at least once,
and lately I have been suffering from arthritis
so badly in my
right hand that I cannot even hold a glass
to return your
toast, much less make delicate lines on
parchment or canvas
with a pen or a brush. No, brother ...
for me it is too late."
- More than 450 years have passed. By now,
Albrecht Durer's
hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point
sketches, watercolors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper
engravings hang in every great museum in the world, but the
odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with
only one of Albrecht Durer's works. More than merely being
familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction
hanging in your home or office.
- One day, to pay homage to Albert for all
that he had
sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother's
abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched
skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply "Hands," but
the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to
his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love
"The Praying Hands."
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