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The
central figure in the German Renaissance was Albrecht Dürer, a painter
and graphic artist, one of the most outstanding personalities in the history
of art.
Albrecht Dürer was born on 21 May, 1471 in Nuremberg, south Germany,
son of a prosperous goldsmith Albrecht Dürer the Elder (1427-1502),
and Barbara Holper. His early training was in drawing, woodcutting and
printing, which were to remain his main and favorite media throughout his
artistic career. 1486 through 1489 he was apprenticed in the workshop of
Nuremberg artist Michael Wolgemut.
He traveled much. In 1490 he left his native city for four year, probably
initially visiting Cologne and possibly the Netherlands. He traveled to
Italy twice in 1494-95 and 1505-07, visited Venice and Bologna, perhaps
Florence and Rome. His fame was broadcasted through his engravings, and
artists in Italy were soon drawing on them for ideas. In Venice he knew
and admired above all the aged Giovanni
Bellini. In 1495 he established his own workshop in Nuremberg.
His best known works are his 18 engravings of the Apocalypse cycle, the
most interesting of which is The Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse (1498). One of his patrons was the Frederick
the Wise, Elector of Saxony from 1496, whose portrait he painted in
1496. He commissioned Dürer to paint several altarpieces: The
Seven Sorrows of the Virgin (c.1496-1497), The
Jabach Altarpiece (c.1503-1504), The
Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1508) and The
Adoration of the Magi (1504), which is considered to be one
of the Dürer's masterpieces. Dürer's other patrons for religious
works were wealthy Nuremberg citizens, who commissioned the following pieces:
Lot
Fleeing with His Daughters from Sodom (c.1498), The
Paumgartner Altarpiece (c.1498-1504), Lamentation
for Christ (c.1500-1503), The
Adoration of the Holy Trinity (1511). Dürer was also known
for his portraits, which were frequently commissioned from him. Among his
best are Portrait of Dürer's Father at
70 (1497), Portrait of Oswolt
Krel (1499), Portrait of Bernard
von Reesen (1521), Portrait of
Hieronymus Holzschuher (1526). He also painted several self-portraits,
which give us the greatest insight into his character and beliefs: Self-Portrait
at 22 (1493), Self-Portrait at
26 (1498) and Self-Portrait at
28 (1500).
Throughout his life Dürer produced a lot of watercolour landscapes
and nature studies, the best are Saint John's
Church (1489), House by a Pond
(1496), Willow Mill (1496-1498),
A
Young Hare (1502), The Large Turf
(1503).
Dürer's greatest achievement in printmaking were the three engravings
of 1513-1514, regarded as his masterpieces Knight,
Death and the Devil (1513), St.
Jerome in His Study (1514) and Melencolia
I (1514). After completing these engravings Dürer worked
for the Emperor Maximilian , who commissioned
him to design a huge print The Triumphal Arch, to celebrate the
Emperor's achievements. This monumental project, composed of 192 woodblocks
and 330 cm (11') high, is still the largest woodcut print ever made. In
1515 Emperor Maximilian granted him a pension of 100 florins, although
it was stopped after his death in 1519. Dürer had to travel to the
Netherlands in 1520-1521 to the court of the Emperor
Charles V to have the pension confirmed. During his journey he met
many famous Netherlands painters such as Quentin
Massys, Joos van Cleve, Lucys van Leyden and others. In Antwerp he
met Erasmus, the humanist scholar, and sketched
his portrait.
Dürer became an early and enthusiastic follower of Martin
Luther. His new faith can be sensed in the growing austerity of style
and subject in his religious works after 1520. The climax of this trend
is represented by The Four Holy Men
(1526).
Albrecht Dürer is akin to Leonardo
in his restless intellectual curiosity. He wrote and published theoretical
works: Manual of Measurement (1525); Various Instructions for
the Fortification of Towns, Castles and other Localities (1527). Dürer
died on 6 April 1528 in Nuremberg and was buried in St. John’s churchyard.
His Four Books on Human Proportion were published in October.
Dürer is the most universal, the most balanced and the greatest of
all German artists of any period.
Notes
Frederick III (1463-1525), known as Frederick
the Wise, had become the Elector of Saxony in 1486 and was one of the princes
entitled to select the Holy Roman Emperor. he was one of the first Dürer's
patrons.
See: Albrecht Durer. Portrait of Frederick
the Wise.
Oswolt Krel was a Lindau merchant and head
of the Great Ravensburg Trading Company in Nuremberg between 1494 and 1503.
See: Albrecht Durer. Portrait of Oswolt
Krel.
The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand.
The altarpiece depicts the legend of the ten thousand Christians who were
martyred on Mount Ararat, in a massacre perpetrated by the Persian King
Saporat at the command of the Roman Emperors Hadrian and Antonius.
See: Albrecht Durer. The Martyrdom of
the Ten Thousand.
Michael Wolgemut (1434/7-1519) a German
painter, at the time when Dürer was his apprentice he was Nuremberg's
leading artist. He was also a successful entrepreneur, handling a broad
range of artistic work, such as painting altarpieces and portraits, designing
stained glass and producing woodcut prints. He had one of the largest artist’s
workshops in Germany. Dürer was his apprentice from 1486 till 1489.
See: Albrecht Durer. Portrait of Michael
Wolgemut.
Bernhard von Reesen (1491-1521),
a Danzig merchant whose family had important business links with Antwerp,
died from the plague just a few months later after the portrait was finished.
See: Albrecht Durer. Portrait of Bernard
von Reesen.
Hieronymus Holzschuher (1469-1529) was
a close friend of Dürer, a learned man from a powerful local family,
mayor of Nuremberg in 1509.
See: Albrecht Durer. Portrait of Hieronymus
Holzschuher.
Johannes Kleberger (1486-1546), a Nuremberg
merchant, worked in France and Switzerland. In 1528 he married Pirckheimer’s
(Dürer’s close friend) daughter Felicitas, against her father’s will.
Just a few days later, for unknown reasons, Kleberger suddenly left Nuremberg
without her and emigrated to Lyons. There he eventually gave away much
of his great wealth to the poor.
See: Albrecht Durer. Portrait of Johannes
Kleberger.
The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin
is the earliest known altarpiece by Dürer. It was originally very
large, about 2x3 m. The right half, representing the Seven Joys of the
Virgin, is now missing and only the left part with sorrows survived. The
central part depicts the grieving Virgin after the Crucifixion. Around
the Virgin are seven smaller panels with detailed scenes from the life
of the Christ (from top left): the Circumcision, the Flight into Egypt,
the 12 year old Christ among the Doctors, the bearing of the Cross, the
Nailing to the Cross, the Crucifixion and the Lamentation. The altarpiece
was bought in mid-sixteenth century by the artist Lucas Cranach the Younger
(1515-86), it was probably him who sawed the work into separate panels.
See: Albrecht Durer. The Seven Sorrows
of the Virgin.
Charlemagne (Charles the Great, 747-814)
king of the Franks and Christian Emperor of the West. After the death of
his father Pepin the Short and his younger brother Carloman he inherited
the Frankish kingdom. He spent the following years conquering and
Christianizing the neighbouring kingdoms of the Saxons and the Lombards.
In 788 Charlemagne deposed the ruler of Bohemia and absorbed it into his
empire. Farther to the east he subdued the Avars (Turko-Finnish nomads)
in the middle Danube basin. In 800 he entered into Italy to support Pope
Leo III against the rebellious Romans and on Christmas Day, 800, in St.
Peter's Church, was crowned by the pope Emperor of the Romans as 'Carolus
Augustus'. Charlemagne zealously promoted education, architecture, bookmaking
and the arts, created stable administrations and good laws, and encouraged
agriculture, industry and commerce. His reign was a noble attempt to consolidate
order and Christian culture among the nations in the western part of the
former Roman Empire. There are no portraits of Charlemagne, done in his
time, that is why Dürer invented his portrait. This interpretation
of Charlemagne’s appearance influenced depictions of the Emperor until
well into the 19th century.
See: Albrecht Durer. Emperor Charlemagne
and Emperor Sigismund.
Raphael The Coronation
of Charlemagne.
Sigismund (1368-1437) Holy Roman Emperor from 1433, younger son
of Emperor Charles IV. he became king of Hungary in 1387 through
his marriage to Mary, daughter of Louis I the Great. As emperor he presided
over the council of Constance, which ended the Great Schism and condemned
John Huss to death. But he had to recognize the Hussites principles in
the Four Articles of Prague in exchange to throne of Bohemia. For depiction
of Sigismund Dürer must have had access to a portrait done during
his reign.
See: Albrecht Durer. Emperor Charlemagne
and Emperor Sigismund.
Maximilian I of Austria (1459-1519)
became head of the Habsburgs in 1493 and was elected Holy Roman Emperor
in 1508. He was a learned ruler with strong interest in the arts. He commissioned
Dürer some works and in 1515 awarded him an annual pension of 100
florins.
See: Albrecht Durer. Portrait of Maximilian
I.
Jakob Muffel (1471-1526) was a leading
figure in Nuremberg's government and friend to Durer. This painting is
inscribed "effigies", meaning that it was completed (if not begun) after
Muffel's death.
See: Albrecht Durer. Portrait of Jakob
Muffel.
Bibliography:
Dürer and His Time. by M. Libman. Moscow. 1972.
Dürer. by S. Lvov. Moscow. 1985.
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary.
Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
The
Complete Engravings, Etchings and Drypoints of Albrecht Duurer
by Albrecht Duurer. Dover Pubns, 1972.
The
Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer by Albrecht Durer, Willi
Kurth (Editor). Dover Pubns, 1985.
Drawings
of Albrecht Durer by Heinrich Wolfflin (Editor), Albrecht Durer.
Dover Pubns, 1970.
Albrecht
Durer (Masters of German Art Series) by Anja-Franziska Eichler,
Albrecht Durer. Konemann, 1999.
The
Human Figure: The Complete Dresden Sketchbook by Albrecht Durer,
Walter L. Strauss. Dover Publications, 1972.
Albrecht
Durer's Renaissance : Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith
(Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Civilization) by David Hotchkiss
Price. UMP, 2003.
The
Life and Art of Albrecht Durer by E. Panofsky. Princeton University
Press, 1971.
Nature's
Artist: Plants and Animals by Albrecht Durer, Victoria Salley.
Prestel, 2003.