Albrecht Durer

(1471-1528)

Dürer was the most famous artist of the Reformation period in Germany. Born in Nuremberg, Germany, Dürer’s father was his first art teacher. At age of 15, Dürer was apprenticed to Michael Wolgemut. There he learned to create drawings used to make woodcuts, a profitable business considering the growth of the printing industry.

Once he finished his apprenticeship, he was off to hone is skills. For a time, he worked in Basel, Switzerland and in Strasbourg, Germany, making illustrations for several publications, including Sebastian Brant’s Das Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools). During this early period, Dürer’s works demonstrate his keen attention to detail. In 1494, he traveled to Italy, producing some finely detailed landscape studies using watercolor.

During the next 10 years in Nuremberg, Dürer produced a number of works that made him famous including a woodcut series “the Apocalypse” and the engraving “the Fall of Man”. These works show his technical mastery of these media and his brilliant ability to create works of unequaled reality. In his “Self-Portrait” of 1500 he portrays himself has a Christ-like figure, representing his lifelong desire to raise the artists stature from that of a mere artisan.

Dürer made another trip to Italy in 1505, meeting with other great artists such as Giovanni Bellini. He obtained a commission to paint “The Madonna of the Rose Garlands” for the German Merchants Foundation. Once he returned to Nuremberg, he again produced a number of great works including portraits, prints, engravings, including “The Knight, Death, and the Devil” and Melancholia I.

His last great works are two large panels of the “Four Apostles,” completed around 1526.

15th century German Gothic art was being influenced by Flemish artists of the day. By the 16th century, stronger trade ties with Italy resulted in new artistic ideas being introduced. Dürer’s self-appointed job was to create a model where German artists could combine their interest in naturalistic detail with the more idealized figures used in Italian art. Throughout his life, he worked on his best known theoretical writing, “the Four Books on Human Proportions.” Artists of his day, being more into visual aides than reading, used his works to guide them in their efforts to modernize their works.

After falling behind Netherlanders s in art, German artists began to take chage of the Northern School. In the first few years of the 16th century, the Germans absorbed the advances of the Italians, such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

Self-Portrait at 13 Years Old, 1484, silverpoint on paper, Graphische Sammlung, Albertina, Vienna.

The Wire-drawing Mill, 1489, watercolor & gouache on paper, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin.

Portrait of the Artist's Father, 1490, oil on wood, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Erasmus, black chalk, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Self-Portrait, 1493, parchment glued on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Self-Portrait, 1493, pen and brown ink, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Witch Riding a Ram Backwards, engraving, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz at Berlin.

The Death of Orpheus, 1494, engraving, Kunsthalle at Hamburg.

Virgin & Child before an Archway, oil on panel, Fondazione Magnani-Rocca, Parma.

The Painter's Father, 1497, The National Gallery, London.

Four Witches, 1497, engraving, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Adoration of the Magi, engraving.

St. Bridget and One of her Visions, woodcut.

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