Albrecht Dürer: Great Piece of Turf, 1503 – Porcelain Art Mug

Albrecht Dürer's Great Piece of Turf (1503) takes one of the humblest subjects imaginable — a clump of meadow grass with dandelion, plantain and daisy — and gives it the attention usually reserved for a saint. Dürer chose the largest sheet of paper available to him so that every plant could appear at life size. The study is now in a public collection in Vienna.

The viewpoint lies low, at the level of the stems, so that we look into the grass rather than down on it. Dürer almost certainly composed the sheet in his workshop from plants studied one by one: the grasses rise toward the centre, and the brightly lit leaves on the right draw the eye into a dense, dark core. Together with the Young Hare, it is the most famous of his nature studies.

The sheet is printed without its drawn border, running to the upper and lower edge of the printed area, so that the paper ground of the original becomes the ground of the mug.

Fine porcelain, 10 oz — 104 mm high, 75 mm across the base. The image runs around the body; handle and rim stay white. Dishwasher and microwave safe.

From the same series: Young Hare, 1502 · The Rhinoceros, 1515

Albrecht Dürer, Das große Rasenstück (Great Piece of Turf), 1503; watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with white, on paper, 40.8 × 31.5 cm. Public domain.

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.