The Dürer Tree
Looking at Dürer’s lovingly rendered Linden Baum study…
In 1494, Albrecht Dürer painted a portrait… of a Linden Tree. Genus Tilia, commonly called a Lime Tree in the UK or Basswood in the USA. It’s an exquisite study of a mature tree in leaf, produced in watercolour and opaque gouache. A personal sketch which shows something of the bastion it is perched on but no other surroundings. Even nowadays, with our mobile phone cameras, it is difficult to take an ‘insta’ picture of a whole tree, yet here we have a snapshot of this particular tree in exquisite detail, as it appeared to Dürer that particular Summer.
Linden Trees are important in European folklore. Vikings held their courts (known as ‘Things’) beneath them, couples met beneath them to pledge their love, and people danced around them at the Summer Solstice. Dürer recorded such solstice dancing taking place in 1455 under the Linden tree planted in the eleventh century by the canonised Empress Kunigunde (perhaps he joined in as he was fond of dancing himself). Linden Trees were also associated with the Goddess Freya and represented health, luck, truth, love, and fertility. The scent of their summer blossoms attracted bees who made delicious honey, and their leaves provided a herbal tea reputed to soothe respiratory diseases. The wood itself was a popular choice for carving — in fact, the word Linden…
