Saturday, January 7, 2017
The Praying Hands
Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near
Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to
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 neighbourhood. 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 labouring 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 triumphant
homecoming. After a long and memorable meal, punctuated with music and
laughter, Albrecht rose from his honoured 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, water colours,
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.”
Moral: The next time you see a copy of that touching
creation, take a second look. Let it be your reminder, if you still need one,
that no one – no one – ever makes it alone!
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