page_title: Rabbits and hares in art
section_title: Dürer's Young Hare
hierarchical_section_title: Rabbits and hares in art / In secular art / Dürer's Young Hare
caption_attribution_description: English: a Wolpertinger Français&#160;: un Wolpertinger Deutsch: Wolpertinger Boarisch: Raurackl
context_page_description: Rabbits and hares are common motifs in the visual arts, with variable mythological and artistic meanings in different cultures. The rabbit as well as the hare have been associated with moon deities and may signify rebirth or resurrection. They may also be symbols of fertility or sensuality, and they appear in depictions of hunting and spring scenes in the Labours of the Months.
context_section_description: Probably one of the most famous depictions of an animal in the history of European art is the painting Young Hare by Albrecht Dürer, completed in 1502 and now preserved in the Albertina in Vienna. Dürer's watercolor is seen in the context of his other nature studies, such as his almost equally famous Meadow or his Bird Wings. He chose to paint these in watercolor or gouache, striving for the highest possible precision and "realistic" representation.
  The hare pictured by Dürer probably does not have a symbolic meaning, but it does have an exceptional reception history. Reproductions of Dürer's Hare have often been a permanent component of bourgeois living rooms in Germany. The image has been printed in textbooks; published in countless reproductions; embossed in copper, wood or stone; represented three-dimensionally in plastic or plaster; encased in plexiglas; painted on ostrich eggs; printed on plastic bags; surreally distorted in Hasengiraffe ("Haregiraffe") by Martin Missfeldt; reproduced as a joke by Fluxus artists; and cast in gold; or sold cheaply in galleries and at art fairs
  Since early 2000, Ottmar Hörl has created several works based on Dürer's Hare, including a giant pink version. Sigmar Polke has also engaged with the hare on paper or textiles, or as part of his installations, and even in rubber band form. Dieter Roth's Köttelkarnikel ("Turd Bunny") is a copy of Dürer's Hare made from rabbit droppings, and Klaus Staeck enclosed one in a little wooden box, with a cutout hole, so that it could look out and breathe. Dürer's Hare has even inspired a depiction of the mythological Wolpertinger.
caption: Wolpertinger (2005), in the style of Albrecht Dürer
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