Dürer, Albrecht ...............................
(1471–1528)
A German painter and draftsman, a lead-
ing figure of the Renaissance in northern
Europe, Albrecht Dürer was born in
Nuremberg as the son and grandson of
goldsmiths. His early training took place
in the metalworking shop of his father,
where he showed great talent in drawing.
In 1486 he joined the workshop of Michael
Wolgemut, a painter and illustrator. Dürer
traveled as a young man to the Low Coun-
tries, the Rhine River valley, and Basel,
Switzerland, where he worked as an illus-
trator for books and studied the work of
masters of silverpoint engraving and
woodcut block prints. His earliest known
painting was a portrait of his father, com-
pleted in 1490. In 1494, he returned to
Nuremberg, which became his permanent
home, but after his marriage there he
was soon voyaging again, this time to
Italy. The ruins and literature of ancient
Rome impressed him, as did the works of
Italian painters of Venice, Milan, and
Padua—foremost among them Giovanni
Bellini and Andrea Mantegna. Their paint-
ings in a new style had a strong influence
on Dürer, who would synthesize in his
works the Italian ideas of classicism, hu-
man proportion, and compositional bal-
ance with the northern European taste for
detailed and naturalistic draftsmanship.
After returning to Nuremberg, Dürer
published The Apocalypse, a series of
woodcuts that illustrate events in the
Bible’s book of Revelation. Dürer also used
biblical themes in later series known as
The Great Passion, The Small Passion, and
The Life of the Virgin. His famousSelf-
Portraitof 1498 is one of the renowned
images of the Renaissance, showing Dürer
as an idealistic humanist scholar, a type of
person he had encountered often during
his journey to Italy.
The Italian Renaissance had taught
Dürer that certain principles of arranging
scenes and rendering figures allowed the
skilled artist to convey a sense of spiritual-
ity and reverence for religious subject mat-
ter. He put this principle to use in his al-
tarpieces, paintings done for prominent
display inside a church. One of the most
famous of these works is thePaumgartner
Altarpiece, which was completed by 1504.
Dürer also adopted myth and allegory in
his engravings, such asNemesisandThe
Prodigal Son. Along with his watercolor
painting ofThe Wild Hare, still one of the
most common art reproductions, these
works were reproduced as prints by the
thousands and circulated throughout Eu-
rope.In “Ecce Homo,” from Albrecht Dürer’s
“Great Passion” series of woodcuts, Christ is
presented to the mob by Pontius Pilate and
sentenced to death. Durer’s monogram can
be seen in the center bottom.
Dürer, Albrecht