Albrect Durer and the Rhinosceros/German Artist

One of my favorite stories in art history is about Durer's etching of a rhinoceros. Durer had never seen a rhino, but his friend Moravian friend had. He sent him a letter with a written description. Photography did not exist, so the only description Durer had was the written one his friend had sent him. The words were translated by Durer to a visual image. It was an interesting result, not exactly looking like a rhinoceros, but a cross between a rhino and an armored tank!

One of the lessons I did with elementary children was to read the description of a Rhino his friend had written, and then ask the children to draw an image form the written description alone. It was always fun and an interesting result.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dürer's_Rhinoceros(in clickable form in websites of interest column on right.

Off Beat Travel/Germany/Artist Homes

This post is for my German artist friends and for my American friends living in Germany. When I have lived overseas working I would spend every week end going and seeing something new and different to me. I know my friends who are living in Germany now do the same. I found this post of interest as I was looking for German artist I wanted to post. It is information about which artists homes are open to the public and how to get there. If you live in Germany or traveling for a vacation, this should be of interest to you.

http://67.20.94.185/travel-advice/3776-visit-the-historic-homes-of-german-artists.html

As always this will be in clickable for in the column on the right hand side of the blog, named websites of interest.

A side bar to all of this is a visit I made to Germany two years ago. I was in Stuttgart primarily visiting a close friend. We drove to other areas in Southern Germany as well. The Christmas market was in full swing, and the Gluehwine. We drove to Strasbourg just into France, a town that has been French, German, and French again. We had a lovely day there, the restaurants along the river, the charming walking bridges and Christmas festivities.