Dürer's vast body of work includesengravings, his preferred technique in his later prints,altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits,watercolours and books. The woodcuts series are stylistically moreGothic than the rest of his work, but revolutionised the potential of that medium, while his extraordinary handling of theburin expanded especially the tonal range of his engravings; well-known engravings include the threeMeisterstiche (master prints)Knight, Death and the Devil (1513),Saint Jerome in his Study (1514), andMelencolia I (1514). His watercolours mark him as one of the first Europeanlandscape artists.
Dürer was born on 21 May 1471, the third child and second son of Albrecht Dürer the Elder and Barbara Holper, who married in 1467.[5][6] Albrecht Dürer the Elder (originally Albrecht Ajtósi) was a successfulgoldsmith who by 1455 had moved to Nuremberg fromAjtós, nearGyula inHungary.[7] He married Barbara, his master's daughter, when he himself qualified as a master.[6] Her mother, Klinga Öllinger had some roots in Hungary too,[8] as she was born inSopron. The couple had eighteen children together, of which only three survived.Hans Dürer (1490–1534), also became a painter, trained under the older Albrecht. The other surviving brother, Endres Dürer (1484–1555), took over their father's business and was a master goldsmith.[9] The German name "Dürer" is a translation from the Hungarian, "Ajtósi".[7] Initially, it was "Türer", meaning doormaker, which is "ajtós" in Hungarian (from "ajtó", meaning door). A door is featured in thecoat-of-arms the family acquired. Albrecht Dürer the Younger later changed "Türer", his father's diction of the family's surname, to "Dürer", to adapt to the local Nuremberg dialect.[6]
Because Dürer left autobiographical writings and was widely known by his mid-twenties, his life is well documented. After a few years of school, Dürer learned the basics of goldsmithing and drawing from his father. Though his father wanted him to continue his training as a goldsmith, he showed such a precocious talent in drawing that he was allowed to start as an apprentice toMichael Wolgemut at the age of fifteen in 1486.[10] A self-portrait, a drawing insilverpoint, is dated 1484 (Albertina, Vienna) "when I was a child", as his later inscription says. The drawing is one of the earliest surviving children's drawings of any kind, and, as Dürer's Opus One, has helped define his oeuvre as deriving from, and always linked to, himself.[11] Wolgemut was the leading artist in Nuremberg at the time, with a large workshop producing a variety of works of art, in particular woodcuts for books. Nuremberg was then an important and prosperous city, a centre for publishing and many luxury trades. It had strong links withItaly, especiallyVenice, a relatively short distance across theAlps.[12]
Dürer's godfatherAnton Koberger left goldsmithing to become a printer and publisher in the year of Dürer's birth. He became the most successful publisher in Germany, eventually owning twenty-fourprinting-presses and a number of offices in Germany and abroad. Koberger's most famous publication was theNuremberg Chronicle, published in 1493 in German and Latin editions. It contained an unprecedented 1,809woodcut illustrations (albeit with many repeated uses of the same block) by the Wolgemut workshop. Dürer may have worked on some of these, as the work on the project began while he was with Wolgemut.[12]
After completing his apprenticeship, Dürer followed the common German custom of takingWanderjahre—in effectgap years—in which the apprentice learned skills from other masters, their local tradition and individual styles; Dürer was to spend about four years away. He left in 1490, possibly to work underMartin Schongauer, the leading engraver of Northern Europe, but who died shortly before Dürer's arrival atColmar in 1492. It is unclear where Dürer travelled in the intervening period, though it is likely that he went toFrankfurt and theNetherlands. In Colmar, Dürer was welcomed by Schongauer's brothers, the goldsmiths Caspar and Paul and the painter Ludwig. Later that year, Dürer travelled toBasel to stay with another brother of Martin Schongauer, the goldsmith Georg.[n 1] In 1493 Dürer went toStrasbourg, where he would have experienced the sculpture ofNikolaus Gerhaert. Dürer's first painted self-portrait (now in theLouvre) was painted at this time, probably to be sent back to his fiancée in Nuremberg.[12]
Dürer's sketch of his wife Agnes Frey (1494)
Very soon after his return to Nuremberg, on 7 July 1494, at the age of 23, Dürer was married toAgnes Frey following an arrangement made during his absence. Agnes was the daughter of a prominent brass worker (and amateur harpist) in the city. However, no children resulted from the marriage, and with Albrecht the Dürer name died out. The marriage between Agnes and Albrecht was believed not to be a generally happy one, as indicated by a letter of Dürer in which he quipped toWillibald Pirckheimer in a rough tone about his wife, calling her an "old crow" and made other vulgar remarks. Pirckheimer also made no secret of his antipathy towards Agnes, describing her as a miserly shrew with a bitter tongue, who helped cause Dürer's death at a young age.[13] It has been hypothesized by many scholars that Albrecht was bisexual or homosexual, due to the recurrence of allegedly homoerotic themes in some of his works (e.g.The Men's Bath), and the nature of his correspondence with close friends.[14][15][16]
Within three months of his marriage, Dürer left for Italy, alone, perhaps prompted by an outbreak ofplague in Nuremberg. He made watercolour sketches as he traveled over the Alps. Some have survived and others may be deduced from accurate landscapes of real places in his later work, for example his engravingNemesis.
In Italy, he went to Venice to study its more advanced artistic world.[17] Through Wolgemut's tutelage, Dürer had learned how to make prints indrypoint and design woodcuts in the German style, based on the works of Schongauer and theHousebook Master.[17] He also would have had access to some Italian works in Germany, but the two visits he made to Italy had an enormous influence on him. He wrote thatGiovanni Bellini was the oldest and still the best of the artists in Venice. His drawings and engravings show the influence of others, notablyAntonio del Pollaiuolo, with his interest in the proportions of the body;Lorenzo di Credi; andAndrea Mantegna, whose work he produced copies of while training.[18] Dürer probably also visitedPadua andMantua on this trip.[n 2]
It is now thought unlikely that Dürer cut any of the woodblocks himself; this task would have been performed by a specialist craftsman. However, his training in Wolgemut's studio, which made many carved and painted altarpieces and both designed and cut woodblocks for woodcut, evidently gave him great understanding of what the technique could be made to produce, and how to work with block cutters. Dürer either drew his design directly onto the woodblock itself, or glued a paper drawing to the block. Either way, his drawings were destroyed during the cutting of the block.
His series of sixteen designs for theApocalypse[19] is dated 1498, as is his engraving ofSt. Michael Fighting the Dragon. He made the first seven scenes of theGreat Passion in the same year, and a little later, a series of eleven on theHoly Family and saints. TheSeven Sorrows Polyptych, commissioned byFrederick III of Saxony in 1496, was executed by Dürer and his assistants c. 1500. In 1502, Dürer's father died. Around 1503–1505 Dürer produced the first 17 of a set illustrating theLife of the Virgin, which he did not finish for some years. Neither these nor theGreat Passion were published as sets until several years later, but prints were sold individually in considerable numbers.[12]
The Venetian artistJacopo de' Barbari, whom Dürer had met in Venice, visited Nuremberg in 1500, and Dürer said that he learned much about the new developments inperspective,anatomy, andproportion from him.[20] To Dürer it seemed that De' Barbari was unwilling to explain everything he knew, so he began his own studies, which would become a lifelong preoccupation. A series of extant drawings show Dürer's experiments in human proportion, leading to the famous engraving ofAdam and Eve (1504), which shows his subtlety while using the burin in the texturing of flesh surfaces.[12] This is the only existing engraving signed with his full name.
Dürer created large numbers of preparatory drawings, especially for his paintings and engravings, and many survive, most famously theBetende Hände (Praying Hands) from circa 1508, a study for an apostle in the Heller altarpiece. He continued to make images in watercolour andbodycolour (usually combined), including a number of still lifes of meadow sections or animals, including hisYoung Hare (1502) and theGreat Piece of Turf (1503).
In Italy, he returned to painting, at first producing a series of works executed intempera onlinen. These include portraits and altarpieces, notably, thePaumgartner altarpiece and theAdoration of the Magi. In early 1506, he returned to Venice and stayed there until the spring of 1507.[4] It was in Venice that he took up the material ofblue paper, which he used to execute preparatory drawing for paintings he completed there in 1505–1507.[21] By this time Dürer's engravings had attained great popularity and were being copied. In Venice he was given a valuable commission from the emigrant German community for the church ofSan Bartolomeo. This was the altar-piece known as theFeast of the Rosary (or theFeast of Rose Garlands). It showsPope Julius II andEmperor Maximilian I, peacefully kneeling in adoration before her throne, both with their crowns taken off. It also includes portraits of members of Venice's German community and of Dürer himself on the upper right holding a designation of his authorship. Besides theFlemishverism in the depiction of the greenery and the garments, and the use of his own hues, the altar-piece shows a strong Italian influence. It was later acquired by the EmperorRudolf II and taken to Prague.[22]
Knight, Death and the Devil, 1513,engraving, 24.5 x 19.1 cmMelencolia I (1514), engravingSt Jerome in His Study 1514Rhinoceros (1515), National Gallery of Art
Dürer returned to Nuremberg by mid-1507, remaining in Germany until 1520. His reputation had spread throughout Europe and he was on friendly terms and in communication with many of the major artists includingRaphael.[n 3]
Between 1507 and 1511 Dürer worked on some of his most celebrated paintings:Adam and Eve (1507),Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1508, for Frederick of Saxony),Virgin with the Iris (1508), the altarpieceAssumption of the Virgin (1509, for Jacob Heller of Frankfurt), andAdoration of the Trinity (1511, for Matthaeus Landauer). During this period he also completed two woodcut series, theGreat Passion and theLife of the Virgin, both published in 1511 together with a second edition of theApocalypse series. The post-Venetian woodcuts show Dürer's development ofchiaroscuro modelling effects,[24] creating a mid-tone throughout the print to which the highlights and shadows can be contrasted. Other works from this period include the thirty-sevenLittle Passion woodcuts, published in 1511, and a set of fifteen small engravings on the same theme in 1512. Complaining that painting did not make enough money to justify the time spent when compared to his prints,[25] he produced no paintings from 1513 to 1516. In 1513 and 1514 Dürer created his three most famousengravings:Knight, Death and the Devil (1513, probably based onErasmus'sHandbook of a Christian Knight),[26]St. Jerome in His Study, and the much-debatedMelencolia I (both 1514, the year Dürer's mother died).[n 4] Further outstanding pen and ink drawings of Dürer's period of art work of 1513 were drafts for his friend Pirckheimer. These drafts were later used to designLusterweibchen chandeliers, combining anantler with a wooden sculpture.
In 1515, he created hiswoodcut of a Rhinoceros which had arrived inLisbon from a written description and sketch by another artist, without ever seeing the animal himself. An image of theIndian rhinoceros, the image has such force that it remains one of his best-known and was still used in some German school science text-books as late as last century.[12] In the years leading to 1520 he produced a wide range of works, including the woodblocks for the first western printed star charts in 1515[28] and portraits in tempera on linen in 1516. His only experiments withetching came in this period, producing five between 1515–1516 and a sixth in 1518; a technique he may have abandoned as unsuited to his aesthetic of methodical, classical form.[29]
Portrait of Maximilian I (1519), oil on lime wood, 74 × 61,5 cm,Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Inv. GG 825)The Triumphal Arch of Maximilian (1515, 1799 ed.), 42 woodcuts and 2 etchings, 354 × 298.5 cm overall (National Gallery of Art, Inv. 76935)
From 1512,Maximilian I became Dürer's major patron. He commissionedThe Triumphal Arch, a vast work printed from 192 separate blocks, the symbolism of which is partly informed by Pirckheimer's translation ofHorapollo'sHieroglyphica. The design program and explanations were devised byJohannes Stabius, the architectural design by the master builder and court-painter Jörg Kölderer and the woodcutting itself byHieronymous Andreae, with Dürer as designer-in-chief.The Arch was followed byThe Triumphal Procession completed c. 1512.
Dürer worked with pen on the marginal images for an edition of the Emperor's printed prayer book; these were quite unknown until facsimiles were published in 1808 as part of the first book published inlithography. Dürer's work on the book was halted for an unknown reason, and the decoration was continued by artists includingLucas Cranach the Elder andHans Baldung. Dürer also made several portraits of the Emperor, including one shortly before Maximilian's death in 1519.
Maximilian was a very cash-strapped prince who sometimes failed to pay, yet turned out to be Dürer's most important patron.[30][31][32] In his court, artists and learned men were respected, which was not common at that time (later, Dürer commented that in Germany, as a non-noble, he was treated as a parasite).[33][34] Pirckheimer (who he met in 1495, before entering the service of Maximilian) was also an important personage in the court and great cultural patron, who had a strong influence on Dürer as his tutor in classical knowledge and humanistic critical methodology, as well as collaborator.[35][36] In Maximilian's court, Dürer also collaborated with a great number of other brilliant artists and scholars of the time who became his friends, likeJohannes Stabius,Konrad Peutinger,Conrad Celtes, and Hans Tscherte (an imperial architect).[37][38][39][40]
Dürer was proud of his ability.[41] When the emperor tried to sketch Dürer an idea on charcoa, Dürer took the material from Maximilian's hand, finished the drawing and told him: "This is my scepter."[42][43][44] On another occasion, Maximilian noticed that the ladder Dürer used was too short and unstable, thus told a noble to hold it for him. The noble refused, saying that it was beneath him to serve a non-noble. Maximilian then came to hold the ladder himself, and told the noble that he could make a noble out of a peasant any day, but he could not make an artist like Dürer out of a noble.[45][46][47]
The Northern Hemisphere of the Celestial Globe, 1515, woodcut print, 61.3 × 45.6 cm, (National Gallery of Art)
This story and a 1849 painting depicting it byAugust Siegert [de] have become relevant recently. This nineteenth-century painting shows Dürer painting a mural atSt. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. Apparently, this reflects a seventeenth-century "artists' legend" about the previously mentioned encounter (in which the emperor held the ladder) – that this encounter corresponds with the period Dürer was working on the Viennese murals. In 2020, during restoration work, art connoisseurs discovered a piece of handwriting now attributed to Dürer, suggesting that the Nuremberg master had actually participated in creating the murals at St. Stephen's Cathedral. In the recent 2022 Dürer exhibition in Nuremberg (in which the drawing technique is also traced and connected to Dürer's other works), the identity of the commissioner is discussed. Now the painting of Siegert (and the legend associated with it) is used as evidence to suggest that this was Maximilian. Dürer is historically recorded to have entered the emperor's service in 1511, and the mural's date is calculated to be around 1505, but it is possible they have known and worked with each other earlier than 1511.[48][49][50]
Dürer's exploration of space led to a relationship and cooperation with the court astronomerJohannes Stabius.[51] Stabius also often acted as Dürer's and Maximilian's go-between for their financial problems.[52]
In 1515 Dürer and Stabius created the first world map projected on a solid geometric sphere.[53] Also in 1515, Stabius, Dürer and the astronomerKonrad Heinfogel [de] produced the first planispheres of both southern and northerns hemispheres, as well as the first printed celestial maps, which prompted the revival of interest in the field ofuranometry throughout Europe.[54][55][56][57]
Maximilian's death came at a time when Dürer was concerned he was losing "my sight and freedom of hand" (perhaps caused by arthritis) and increasingly affected by the writings ofMartin Luther.[58] In July 1520 Dürer made his fourth and last major journey, to renew the Imperial pension Maximilian had given him and to secure the patronage of the new emperor,Charles V, who was to be crowned atAachen. Dürer journeyed with his wife and her maid via theRhine toCologne and then toAntwerp, where he was well received and produced numerous drawings in silverpoint, chalk and charcoal. In addition to attending the coronation, he visited Cologne (where he admired the painting ofStefan Lochner),Nijmegen,'s-Hertogenbosch,Bruges (where he sawMichelangelo'sMadonna of Bruges),Ghent (where he admiredJan van Eyck'sGhent Altarpiece),[59] andZeeland.
Dürer took a large stock of prints with him and wrote in his diary to whom he gave, exchanged or sold them, and for how much. This provides rare information of the monetary value placed on prints at this time. Unlike paintings, their sale was very rarely documented.[60] While providing valuable documentary evidence, Dürer's Netherlandish diary also reveals that the trip was not a profitable one. For example, Dürer offered his last portrait of Maximilian to his daughter,Margaret of Austria, but eventually traded the picture for some white cloth after Margaret disliked the portrait and declined to accept it. During this trip he also metBernard van Orley,Jan Provoost,Gerard Horenbout,Jean Mone,Joachim Patinir andTommaso Vincidor, though he did not, it seems, meetQuentin Matsys.[61]
Having secured his pension, Dürer returned home in July 1521, having caught an undetermined illness, which afflicted him for the rest of his life, and greatly reduced his rate of work.[12]
Salvator Mundi, unfinished oil painting on linden wood, 58.1 × 47 cm,Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
On his return to Nuremberg, Dürer worked on a number of grand projects with religious themes, including a crucifixion scene and asacra conversazione, though neither was completed.[62] This may have been due in part to his declining health, but perhaps also because of the time he gave to the preparation of his theoretical works on geometry and perspective, the proportions of men and horses, andfortification.
As for engravings, Dürer's work was restricted to portraits and illustrations for his treatise. The portraits include his boyhood friendWillibald Pirckheimer, Cardinal-ElectorAlbert of Mainz;Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony;Philipp Melanchthon, andErasmus of Rotterdam. For those ofthe Cardinal, Melanchthon, and Dürer's final major work, a drawn portrait of the Nuremberg patrician Ulrich Starck, Dürer depicted the sitters in profile.
Despite complaining of his lack of a formal classical education, Dürer was greatly interested in intellectual matters and learned much from Willibald Pirckheimer, whom he no doubt consulted on the content of many of his images.[64] He also derived great satisfaction from his friendships and correspondence with Erasmus and other scholars. Dürer succeeded in producing two books during his lifetime.The Four Books on Measurement were published at Nuremberg in 1525 and was the first book for adults onmathematics in German,[12] as well as being cited later byGalileo andKepler. The other, a work on city fortifications, was published in 1527.The Four Books on Human Proportion were published posthumously, shortly after his death in 1528.[4]
Dürer died in Nuremberg at the age of 56, leaving an estate valued at 6,874 florins – a considerable sum. He is buried in the Johannisfriedhof cemetery.His large house (purchased in 1509 from the heirs of the astronomerBernhard Walther), where his workshop was located and where his widow lived until her death in 1539, remains a prominent Nuremberg landmark.[12]
Dürer's writings suggest that he may have been sympathetic to Luther's ideas, though it is unclear if he ever left the Catholic Church. Dürer wrote of his desire to draw Luther in his diary in 1520: "And God help me that I may go to Dr. Martin Luther; thus I intend to make a portrait of him with great care and engrave him on a copper plate to create a lasting memorial of the Christian man who helped me overcome so many difficulties."[65] In a letter toNicholas Kratzer in 1524, Dürer wrote, "because of our Christian faith we have to stand in scorn and danger, for we are reviled and called heretics". Most tellingly, Pirckheimer wrote in a letter to Johann Tscherte in 1530: "I confess that in the beginning I believed in Luther, like our Albert of blessed memory ... but as anyone can see, the situation has become worse." Dürer may even have contributed to the Nuremberg City Council's mandating Lutheran sermons and services in March 1525. Notably, Dürer had contacts with various reformers, such asZwingli,Andreas Karlstadt, Melanchthon, Erasmus andCornelius Grapheus from whom Dürer received Luther'sBabylonian Captivity in 1520.[66] Yet Erasmus and C. Grapheus are better said to be Catholic change agents. Also, from 1525, "the year that saw the peak and collapse of thePeasants' War, the artist can be seen to distance himself somewhat from the [Lutheran] movement..."[67]
However, Dürer's later works have also been claimed to showProtestant sympathies. His 1523The Last Supper woodcut has often been understood to have anevangelical theme, focusing as it does on Christ espousing theGospel, as well as the inclusion of theEucharistic cup, perhaps alluding to tenets of Protestantutraquism,[68] although this interpretation has been questioned.[69] The delaying of the engraving ofSt. Philip, completed in 1523 but not distributed until 1526, may have been due to Dürer's uneasiness with images of saints; even if Dürer was not aniconoclast, in his last years he evaluated and questioned the role of art in religion.[70]
In all his theoretical works, in order to communicate his theories in theGerman language rather than inLatin, Dürer used graphic expressions based on avernacular, craftsmen's language. For example,Schneckenlinie ("snail-line") was his term for a spiral form. Thus, Dürer contributed to the expansion in German prose which Luther had begun with his translation of theBible.[63]
Dürer's work ongeometry is called theFour Books on Measurement (Underweysung der Messung mit dem Zirckel und Richtscheyt orInstructions for Measuring withCompass and Ruler).[71] The first book focuses on linear geometry. Dürer's geometric constructions includehelices,conchoids andepicycloids. He also draws onApollonius, andJohannes Werner'sLibellus super viginti duobus elementis conicis of 1522.
The second book moves onto two-dimensional geometry, i.e. the construction of regularpolygons.[72] Here Dürer favours the methods ofPtolemy overEuclid. The third book applies these principles of geometry to architecture, engineering andtypography. In architecture Dürer citesVitruvius but elaborates his own classical designs andcolumns. In typography, Dürer depicts the geometric construction of theLatin alphabet, relying onItalian precedent. However, his construction of theGothic alphabet is based upon an entirely differentmodular system. The fourth book completes the progression of the first and second by moving to three-dimensional forms and the construction ofpolyhedra. Here Dürer discusses the fivePlatonic solids, as well as sevenArchimedean semi-regular solids, as well as several of his own invention.
Illustration from theFour Books on Human Proportion
Dürer's work onhuman proportions is called theFour Books on Human Proportion (Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion) of 1528.[73] The first book was mainly composed by 1512/13 and completed by 1523, showing five differently constructed types of both male and female figures, all parts of the body expressed in fractions of the total height. Dürer based these constructions on bothVitruvius and empirical observations of "two to three hundred living persons",[63] in his own words. The second book includes eight further types, broken down not into fractions but anAlbertian system, which Dürer probably learned fromFrancesco di Giorgio'sDe harmonica mundi totius of 1525. In the third book, Dürer gives principles by which the proportions of the figures can be modified, including the mathematical simulation ofconvex andconcave mirrors; here Dürer also deals with humanphysiognomy. The fourth book is devoted to the theory of movement.[20]
Appended to the last book, however, is a self-contained essay on aesthetics, which Dürer worked on between 1512 and 1528, and it is here that we learn of his theories concerning 'ideal beauty'. Dürer rejected Alberti's concept of an objective beauty, proposing a relativist notion of beauty based on variety. Nonetheless, Dürer still believed that truth was hidden within nature, and that there were rules which ordered beauty, even though he found it difficult to define the criteria for such a code. In 1512/13 his three criteria were function ("Nutz"), naïve approval ("Wohlgefallen") and the happy medium ("Mittelmass"). However, unlike Alberti andLeonardo, Dürer was most troubled by understanding not just the abstract notions of beauty but also as to how an artist can create beautiful images. Between 1512 and the final draft in 1528, Dürer's belief developed from an understanding of human creativity as spontaneous orinspired to a concept of 'selective inward synthesis'.[63] In other words, that an artist builds on a wealth of visual experiences in order to imagine beautiful things. Dürer's belief in the abilities of a single artist over inspiration prompted him to assert that "one man may sketch something with his pen on half a sheet of paper in one day, or may cut it into a tiny piece of wood with his little iron, and it turns out to be better and more artistic than another's work at which its author labours with the utmost diligence for a whole year".[74]
Title page ofVier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion showing themonogram signature of artist
In 1527, Dürer also publishedVarious Lessons on the Fortification of Cities, Castles, and Localities (Etliche Underricht zu Befestigung der Stett, Schloss und Flecken). It was printed inNuremberg, probably by Hieronymus Andreae and reprinted in 1603 by Johan Janssenn inArnhem. In 1535 it was also translated into Latin asOn Cities, Forts, and Castles, Designed and Strengthened by Several Manners: Presented for the Most Necessary Accommodation of War (De vrbibus, arcibus, castellisque condendis, ac muniendis rationes aliquot : praesenti bellorum necessitati accommodatissimae), published by Christian Wechel (Wecheli/Wechelus) in Paris.[75]
Page from theMeditation on the Handling of Weapons, 1512
Dürer created many sketches and woodcuts of soldiers and knights over the course of his life. His most significant martial works, however, were made in 1512 as part of his efforts to secure the patronage of Maximilian I. Using existing manuscripts from theNuremberg Group as his reference, his workshop produced the extensiveΟπλοδιδασκαλια sive Armorvm Tractandorvm Meditatio Alberti Dvreri ("Weapon Training, or Albrecht Dürer's Meditation on the Handling of Weapons", MS 26-232). Another manuscript based on the Nuremberg texts as well as one of Hans Talhoffer's works, the untitledBerlin Picture Book (Libr.Pict.A.83), is also thought to have originated in his workshop around this time. These sketches and watercolours show the same careful attention to detail and human proportion as Dürer's other work, and his illustrations of grappling, long sword, dagger, andmesser are among the highest-quality in any fencing manual.[76]
Dürer exerted a huge influence on the artists of succeeding generations, especially in printmaking, the medium through which his contemporaries mostly experienced his art, as his paintings were predominantly in private collections located in only a few cities. His success in spreading his reputation across Europe through prints was undoubtedly an inspiration for major artists such as Raphael,Titian, andParmigianino, all of whom collaborated with printmakers to promote and distribute their work.
His engravings seem to have had an intimidating effect upon his German successors; the "Little Masters" who attempted few large engravings but continued Dürer's themes in small, rather cramped compositions.Lucas van Leyden was the only Northern European engraver to successfully continue to produce large engravings in the first third of the 16th century. The generation of Italian engravers who trained in the shadow of Dürer all either directly copied parts of his landscape backgrounds (Giulio Campagnola,Giovanni Battista Palumba,Benedetto Montagna andCristofano Robetta), or whole prints (Marcantonio Raimondi andAgostino Veneziano). However, Dürer's influence became less dominant after 1515, when Marcantonio perfected his new engraving style, which in turn travelled over the Alps to also dominate Northern engraving.
Dürer had relatively little influence in Italy, where probably only his altarpiece in Venice was seen, and his German successors were less effective in blending German and Italian styles. His intense and self-dramatizing self-portraits have continued to have a strong influence up to the present, especially on painters in the 19th and 20th century who desired a more dramatic portrait style. Dürer has never fallen from critical favour, and there have been significant revivals of interest in his works in Germany in theDürer Renaissance of about 1570 to 1630, in the early nineteenth century, and in Germannationalism from 1870 to 1945.[12]
In 1993, two of Dürer's drawings –Women's Bathhouse, valued at about $10 million, andSitting Mary With Child – along with other works of art werestolen from theNational Art Museum of Azerbaijan. The drawings were later recovered.[79]
Adoration of the Trinity (Landauer Altar), 1511, oil on poplar, 135 × 123.4 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum (GG 838). The framework is a reconstruction of his design.
Portrait of the Artist's Mother at the Age of 63, spring 1514, charcoal on paper, 42.2 × 30.6 cm,Kupferstichkabinett Berlin (KdZ 22)
Head of an 93-Year-Old Man, 1521, brush, ink, heightened w/ gouache, on gray-violet prepared paper, 41.5 × 28.2 cm, Albertina (3167). Study for the St. Jerome
Copper engravings and an etching
Christ on the Mount of Olives, 1515, the only surviving printing plate, iron, 22.7 × 16.1 cm,Bamberg State Library
^Here he produced a woodcut ofSt Jerome as a frontispiece for Nicholaus Kessler'sEpistolare beati Hieronymi.Erwin Panofsky argues that this print combined the "Ulmian style" of Koberger'sLives of the Saints (1488) and that of Wolgemut's workshop. Panofsky (1945), 21
^The evidence for this trip is not conclusive; the suggestion it happened is supported by Panofsky (1945) and is accepted by a majority of scholars, including the several curators of the large 2020–22 exhibition "Dürer's Journeys", but it has been disputed by other scholars, including Katherine Crawford Luber (in herAlbrecht Dürer and the Venetian Renaissance, 2005)
^According to Vasari, Dürer sent Raphael a self-portrait in watercolour, and Raphael sent back multiple drawings. One is dated 1515 and has an inscription by Dürer (or one of his heirs) affirming that Raphael sent it to him. SeeSalmi, Mario; Becherucci, Luisa; Marabottini, Alessandro; Tempesti, Anna Forlani; Marchini, Giuseppe;Becatti, Giovanni;Castagnoli, Ferdinando; Golzio, Vincenzo (1969).The Complete Work of Raphael. New York: Reynal and Co.,William Morrow and Company. pp. 278, 407. Dürer describesGiovanni Bellini as "very old, but still the best in painting".[23]
^In March of this year, two months before his mother died, he drewa portrait of her.[27]
^Conway, Sir William Martin; Conway, William Martin Sir; Dürer, Albrecht (1889).Literary Remains of Albrecht Dürer. University Press. pp. 26–30. Retrieved4 December 2021.
^Allen, L. Jessie (1903).Albrecht Dürer. Methuen. p. 180. Retrieved4 December 2021.
^Bongard, Willi; Mende, Matthias (1971).Dürer Today. Inter Nationes. p. 25. Retrieved3 December 2021.
^Headlam, Cecil (1900).The Story of Nuremberg. J. M. Dent & Company. p. 73. Retrieved4 December 2021.
^Conway, Sir William Martin; Conway, William Martin Sir; Dürer, Albrecht (1889).Literary Remains of Albrecht Dürer. University Press. p. 27. Retrieved7 November 2021.
Bartrum, Giulia.Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy. London: British Museum Press, 2002.ISBN0-7141-2633-0
Brand Philip, Lotte;Anzelewsky, Fedja. "The Portrait Diptych of Dürer's parents".Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Volume 10, No. 1, 1978–79, pp. 5–18.
Harbison, Craig. "Dürer and the Reformation: The Problem of the Re-dating of theSt. Philip Engraving".The Art Bulletin, Vol. 58, No. 3, September 1976, pp. 368–373.
Hoffmann, Rainer (2021).Im Paradies: Adam und Eva und der Sündenfall – Albrecht Dürers Darstellungen (in German). Wien.ISBN978-3-412-52385-5.OCLC1288194477.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Brahms, Iris.Zwischen Licht und Schatten. Zur Tradition der Farbgrundzeichnung bis Albrecht Dürer. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Paderborn 2016,ISBN978-3-7705-5899-5.
Campbell Hutchison, Jane.Albrecht Dürer: A Biography. Princeton University Press, 1990.ISBN0-6-910-0297-5.
Korolija Fontana-Giusti, Gordana. "The Unconscious and Space: Venice and the Work of Albrecht Dürer", inArchitecture and the Unconscious, eds. J. Hendrix and L.Holm, Farnham Surrey: Ashgate, 2016, pp. 27–44,ISBN978-1-4724-5647-2.
Schmidt, Sebastian. "'dan sӳ machten dy vürtrefflichen künstner reich'. Zur ursprünglichen Bestimmung von Albrecht Dürers Selbstbildnis im Pelzrock", inAnzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums 2010, pp. 65–82,ISSN1430-5496.
Wilhelm, Kurth (ed.).The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer, Dover Publications, 2000,ISBN0-486-21097-9.
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