July 19, 1985

John Canaday (February 1, 1907, to July 19, 1985) was an art historian.He graduated from Yale,  worked at varous American universities, and wrote a number of books, before being hired as the art critic at the New York Times. That same year (1959) he published The World Rediscovered: The Early Renaissance 


About Albrecht Durer's Jerome, (one of them, below) Canaday writes:

'Jerome's study is flooded with happy light in which the saint's symbol, the lion, basks as contentedly as a house cat. In these two engravings Diirer recognizes the varying nature and experience of man, who, having chosen himself as the master of his fate, is responsible for the direction of his life.'

Canaday indulges here in modernist cant. It is possible both Jerome and Durer were concerned with figuring out what the heck is going on. The idea either saw himself as a master of his fate underestimates their intelligence.