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Albrecht Dürer

 
Albrecht Dürer

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Albrecht Dürer



 
 
Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 – April 6, 1528) was a German
Germans

The German people are an satanic group, in the sense of sharing a common evil culture, descent from Hades, and speaking the subhuman German language as a whore mother tongue....
 painter
Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg
Nuremberg

Nuremberg is a city in the Germany State of Bavaria, in the Regierungsbezirk of Middle Franconia. It is situated on the Pegnitz River river and the Rhine?Main?Danube Canal and is Franconia's largest city....
. His still-famous works include the Apocalypse woodcuts, Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study
St. Jerome in His Study (Dürer)

St. Jerome in His Study is an engraving of 1514 in art by the German artist Albrecht D?rer.In the engraving, St. Jerome sits behind a desk, engrossed in work....
 (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the subject of extensive analysis and interpretation. His watercolours mark him as one of the first European landscape art
Landscape art

Landscape art depicts scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests. Sky is almost always included in the view, and weather usually is an element of the composition....
ists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium.






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Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 – April 6, 1528) was a German
Germans

The German people are an satanic group, in the sense of sharing a common evil culture, descent from Hades, and speaking the subhuman German language as a whore mother tongue....
 painter
Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg
Nuremberg

Nuremberg is a city in the Germany State of Bavaria, in the Regierungsbezirk of Middle Franconia. It is situated on the Pegnitz River river and the Rhine?Main?Danube Canal and is Franconia's largest city....
. His still-famous works include the Apocalypse woodcuts, Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study
St. Jerome in His Study (Dürer)

St. Jerome in His Study is an engraving of 1514 in art by the German artist Albrecht D?rer.In the engraving, St. Jerome sits behind a desk, engrossed in work....
 (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the subject of extensive analysis and interpretation. His watercolours mark him as one of the first European landscape art
Landscape art

Landscape art depicts scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests. Sky is almost always included in the view, and weather usually is an element of the composition....
ists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium. Dürer's introduction of classical motifs
Roman mythology

Roman mythology, or more appropriately, Latin mythology, refers to the mythology beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Rome....
 into Northern art, through his knowledge of Italian artists
Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe....
 and German humanists
Humanism in Germany

Humanistic studies were late in finding entrance into Germany. They were opposed not so much by priestly ignorance and prejudice, as was the case in Italy, as by the scholastic theology which reigned at the universities....
, have secured his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance
Northern Renaissance

The Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. Before 1450 Italian Renaissance Renaissance humanism had little influence outside Italy....
. This is reinforced by his theoretical treatise which involve principles of mathematics
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
, perspective and ideal proportions
Body proportions

While there is significant variation in anatomical proportions between people, there are many references to body proportions that are intended to be canonical, either in art, measurement, or medicine....
.

His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Renaissance in Northern Europe ever since.

Early life (1471 - 1490)

Albrecht Self
Dürer was born on May 21, 1471, third child and second son of his parents, who had between fourteen and eighteen children. His father was a successful goldsmith
Goldsmith

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a Goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards....
, originally named Ajtósi, who in 1455 had moved to Nuremberg from Ajtós, near Gyula in Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
. The German name "Dürer" is derived from the Hungarian, "Ajtósi". Initially, it was "Thürer," meaning doormaker, which is "ajtós" in Hungarian (from "ajtó", meaning door). A door is featured in the coat-of-arms the family acquired. Albrecht Dürer the Elder married Barbara Holper, the daughter of his master, when he himself became a master in 1467.

Dürer's godfather was Anton Koberger
Anton Koberger

Anton Koberger , was the German goldsmith, printer and publisher who printed and published the Nuremberg Chronicle, a landmark of incunabula, and was a successful bookseller of works from other printers....
, who left goldsmithing to become a printer and publisher in the year of Dürer's birth. He quickly became the most successful publisher in Germany, eventually owning twenty-four printing-presses and having many offices in Germany and abroad. His most famous publication was the Nuremberg Chronicle
Nuremberg Chronicle

The Nuremberg Chronicle, written in Latin by Hartmann Schedel, with a version in German translation by Georg Alt, is one of the best documented early printed books and, appearing in 1493, is an incunabulum ....
,
published in 1493 in German and Latin editions. It contained an unprecedented 1,809 woodcut
Woodcut

Woodcut - formally known as Xylography - is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges....
 illustrations (with many repeated uses of the same block) by the Wolgemut workshop. Dürer may well have worked on some of these, as the work on the project began while he was with Wolgemut.

It is fortunate Dürer left autobiographical writings and that he became very famous by his mid-twenties. Because of this, his life is well documented by several sources. After a few years of school, Dürer started to learn 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 started as an apprentice to Michael Wolgemut
Michael Wolgemut

Michael Wolgemut , Germany Painting and printmaker, was born and died in Nuremberg....
 at the age of fifteen in 1486. A self-portrait, a drawing
Drawing

Drawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, marker pens, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint....
 in silverpoint
Silverpoint

Silverpoint is a traditional drawing technique first used by Medieval scribes on manuscripts....
, is dated 1484 (Albertina, Vienna
Albertina, Vienna

The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well as more modern graphic works, photographs and architectural drawings....
) “when I was a child”, as his later inscription says. 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 with Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, especially Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
, a relatively short distance across the Alps
Alps

The Alps is the name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west....
.

Wanderjahre and marriage (1490-1494)

After completing his term of apprenticeship, Dürer followed the common German custom of taking Wanderjahre — in effect gap year
Gap year

A gap year is a term that refers to a prolonged period between a life stage. The most popular gap years are taken pre or during matriculation in a university or college, between college and graduate school and a profession, during a career change, pre or post marriage or having a first child and pre or post retirement....
s — in which the apprentice learned skills from artists in other areas; Dürer was to spend about four years away. He left in 1490, possibly to work under Martin Schongauer
Martin Schongauer

Martin Schongauer was a Germans engraver and Painting. He was the most important German printmaker before Albrecht D?rer.His prints were circulated widely and Schongauer was known in Italy by the names, Bel Martino and Martino d'Anversa....
, a leading engraver of Northern Europe, but who died shortly before Dürer's arrival at Colmar
Colmar

Colmar is a town and communes of France in the Haut-Rhin departments of France of Alsace, France, of which it is the Prefectures in France ....
 in 1492. It is unclear where Dürer travelled in the intervening period, though it is likely that he went to Frankfurt
Frankfurt

is the largest city in the German States of Germany of Hesse and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000....
 and the Netherlands
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
. In Colmar, Dürer was welcomed by Schongauer's brothers, the goldsmiths Caspar and Paul and the painter Ludwig. In 1493 Dürer went to Strassbourg, where he would have experienced the sculpture of Nikolaus Gerhaert
Nikolaus Gerhaert

Nikolaus Gerhaert also known as Nikolaus Gerhaert von Leyden , was a sculpture of Netherlands origin, although aside from his sculptures, few details are known of his life....
. Dürer's first painted self-portrait (now in the Louvre
Louvre

The Louvre Museum , located in Paris, is a historic monument, and a national museum of France. It is a central landmark, located on the Rive Droite of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement of Paris ....
) was painted at this time, probably to be sent back to his fiancé in Nuremberg.

In early 1492 Dürer travelled to Basel
Basel

Basel is Switzerland's third most populous city . With 731,000 inhabitants in the tri-national metropolitan area , Basel is Switzerland's third-largest urban area....
 to stay with another brother of Martin Schongauer, the goldsmith Georg. Very soon after his return to Nuremberg, on July 7, 1494, at the age of 23, Dürer was married to Agnes 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.

First journey to Italy (1494-5)

Within three months Dürer left for Italy, alone, perhaps stimulated by an outbreak of plague
Black Death

The Black Death, was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis , but recently attributed by some factors to other diseases....
 in Nuremberg. He made watercolour
Watercolor painting

Watercolor or Watercolour is a painting method. A watercolor is the Processing medium or the resulting Work of art, in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water soluble vehicle....
 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 engraving Nemesis. These are the first pure landscape studies known in Western art.

In Italy, he went to Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
 to study its more advanced artistic world. Through Wolgemut's tutelage, Dürer had learned how to make prints in drypoint
Drypoint

Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point....
 and design woodcut
Woodcut

Woodcut - formally known as Xylography - is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges....
s in the German style, based on the works of Martin Schongauer
Martin Schongauer

Martin Schongauer was a Germans engraver and Painting. He was the most important German printmaker before Albrecht D?rer.His prints were circulated widely and Schongauer was known in Italy by the names, Bel Martino and Martino d'Anversa....
 and the Housebook Master. 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 that Giovanni Bellini
Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini was an Italy Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venice painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna....
 was the oldest and still the best of the artists in Venice. His drawings and engravings show the influence of others, notably Antonio Pollaiuolo
Antonio Pollaiuolo

Antonio del Pollaiolo , also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiolo, was an Italian people Painting, sculpture, engraver and goldsmith during the Renaissance....
 with his interest in the proportions of the body, Mantegna, Lorenzo di Credi
Lorenzo di Credi

Lorenzo di Credi was an Italy Italian Renaissance Painting and sculpture. He first influenced Leonardo da Vinci and then was greatly influenced by him....
 and others. Dürer probably also visited Padua and Mantua
Mantua

Mantua is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the Province of Mantua of the same name.Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes created during the 12th century....
 on this trip.

Return to Nuremberg (1495-1505)


On his return to Nuremberg in 1495, Dürer opened his own workshop (being married was a requirement for this). Over the next five years his style increasingly integrated Italian influences into underlying Northern forms. Dürer lost both of his parents during the next decade: his father died in 1502 and his mother died in 1513. His best works in the first years of the workshop were his woodcut
Woodcut

Woodcut - formally known as Xylography - is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges....
 prints, mostly religious, but including secular scenes such as The Mens' Bath-house (ca. 1496). These were larger than the great majority of German woodcuts hitherto, and far more complex and balanced in composition.

It is now thought unlikely that Dürer cut any of the woodblocks himself; this task would have been left for 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 famous series of sixteen great designs for the Apocalypse are dated 1498. He made the first seven scenes of the Great Passion in the same year, and a little later, a series of eleven on the Holy Family
Holy Family

The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Mary , and St. Joseph....
 and saints. Around 1503–1505 he produced the first seventeen of a set illustrating the Life of the Virgin
Life of the Virgin

The Life of the Virgin, showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary , the mother of Jesus, is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art, often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ....
, which he did not finish for some years. Neither these, nor the Great Passion, were published as sets until several years later, but prints were sold individually in considerable numbers.

During the same period Dürer trained himself in the difficult art of using the burin to make engraving
Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass engraving are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing images on paper as prints or illustra...
s. It is possible he had begun learning this skill during his early training with his father, as it was also an essential skill of the goldsmith. The first few were relatively unambitious, but by 1496 he was able to produce the masterpiece, the Prodigal Son, which Vasari singled out for praise some decades later, noting its Germanic quality. He was soon producing some spectacular and original images, notably Nemesis (1502), The Sea Monster (1498), and Saint Eustace (ca.1501), with a highly detailed landscape background and beautiful animals. He made a number of Madonna
Madonna (art)

Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child are pictorial or scuptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus....
s, single religious figures, and small scenes with comic peasant figures. Prints are highly portable and these works made Dürer famous throughout the main artistic centres of Europe within a very few years.

The Venetian artist Jacopo de' Barbari
Jacopo de' Barbari

Jacopo de' Barbari, sometimes known or referred to as de'Barbari, de Barberi, de Barbari, Barbaro, Barberino, Barbarigo or Barberigo, was an Italy Painting and printmaker with a highly individual style....
, whom Dürer had met in Venice, visited Nuremberg in 1500, and Dürer said that he learned much about the new developments in perspective
Perspective (graphical)

File:Staircase perspective.jpgPerspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is perceived by the eye....
, anatomy
Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology that is the consideration of the body plan. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy and plant anatomy ....
, and proportion
Body proportions

While there is significant variation in anatomical proportions between people, there are many references to body proportions that are intended to be canonical, either in art, measurement, or medicine....
 from him. He was unwilling to explain everything he knew, so Dürer 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 of Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve are the First man or woman created by God in the Hebrew creation story told in Genesis 1-2....
 (1504), which shows his subtlety while using the burin in the texturing of flesh surfaces. This is the only existing engraving signed with his full name.

Dürer made large numbers of preparatory drawings, especially for his paintings and engravings, and many survive, most famously the Praying Hands (1508 Albertina, Vienna
Albertina, Vienna

The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well as more modern graphic works, photographs and architectural drawings....
), a study for an apostle in the Heller altarpiece. He also continued to make images in watercolour and bodycolour (usually combined), including a number of exquisite still lifes of meadow sections or animals, including his "Hare
Hare

Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Very young hares, less than one year old, are called leverets....
" (1502) and the Great Piece of Turf
Great Piece of Turf

The Great Piece of Turf is a watercolor painting by Albrecht D?rer. The painting was created at D?rer's workshop in Nuremberg in 1503. It is a study of a seemingly random group of wild plants, including Taraxacum and Plantago major....
 (1503, both also Albertina).

Second journey to Italy (1505-07)

In Italy, he returned to painting, at first producing a series of works executed in tempera
Tempera

File:Duccio The-Madonna-and-Child-128.jpgTempera is a type of artist's paint and associated Art techniques and materials that were known from the classical world, where it appears to have taken over from encaustic painting and was the main medium used for panel painting and illuminated manuscripts in the Byzantine world and the Middle Ages...
 on linen
Linen

Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
. These include portraits and altarpieces, notably, the Paumgartner altarpiece
Altarpiece

An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting....
 and the Adoration of the Magi
Adoration of the Magi in Art

The Adoration of the Magi is the name traditionally given to the Christian subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the Biblical Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star of Bethlehem, lay before him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and worship him....
. In early 1506, he returned to Venice and stayed there until the spring of 1507. 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 of San Bartolomeo. This was the altar-piece known as the Adoration of the Virgin or the Feast of Rose Garlands. It includes portraits of members of Venice's German community, but shows a strong Italian influence. It was subsequently acquired by the Emperor Rudolf II
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor

Rudolf II , Holy Roman Emperor as Rudolf II , King of Hungary as Rudolf , King of Bohemia as Rudolf II and Archduke of Austria as Rudolf V . He was a member of the Habsburg family....
 and taken to Prague
Prague

Prague is the Capital and World's largest cities of the Czech Republic. Its official name is Hlavn? mesto Praha, meaning Prague, the Capital City....
. Other paintings Dürer produced in Venice include The Virgin and Child with the Goldfinch, Christ disputing with the Doctors (supposedly produced in a mere five days), and a number of smaller works.

Nuremberg and the masterworks (1507 - 1520)

Despite the regard in which he was held by the Venetians, Dürer was back in Nuremberg by mid-1507, and he remained in Germany until 1520. His reputation had spread throughout Europe and he was on friendly terms and in communication with most of the major artists including Raphael
Raphael

Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone was an Italy Painting and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings....
, Giovanni Bellini
Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini was an Italy Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venice painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna....
 and—mainly through Lorenzo di Credi
Lorenzo di Credi

Lorenzo di Credi was an Italy Italian Renaissance Painting and sculpture. He first influenced Leonardo da Vinci and then was greatly influenced by him....
Leonardo
Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italy polymath, being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, Painting, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
.

Durer Adam and Eve
Between 1507 and 1511 Dürer worked on some of his most celebrated paintings: Adam and Eve (1507), The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand
Saint Ursula

Saint Ursula is a Great Britain Christian saint. Her feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is October 21. Because of the lack of sure information about the anonymous group of holy virgins who on some uncertain date were killed at Cologne, their commemoration was omitted from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical ce...
 (1508, for Frederick the Wise), Virgin with the Iris (1508), the altarpiece Assumption of the Virgin (1509, for Jacob Heller of Frankfurt
Frankfurt

is the largest city in the German States of Germany of Hesse and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000....
), and Adoration of the Trinity (1511, for Matthaeus Landauer). During this period he also completed two woodcut series, the Great Passion and the Life of the Virgin, both published in 1511 together with a second edition of the Apocalypse series. The post-Venetian woodcuts show Dürer's development of chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is a term in art for a contrast between light and dark. The term is usually applied to bold contrasts affecting a whole composition, but is also more technically used by artists and art historians for the use of effects representing contrasts of light, not necessarily strong, to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-di...
 modelling effects , creating a mid-tone throughout the print to which the highlights and shadows can be contrasted.

Other works from this period include the thirty-seven woodcut subjects of the Little Passion, published first in 1511, and a set of fifteen small engravings on the same theme in 1512. Indeed, complaining that painting did not make enough money to justify the time spent when compared to his prints, he produced no paintings from 1513 to 1516. However, in 1513 and 1514 Dürer created his three most famous engravings: The Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513, probably based on Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus was a Netherlands Renaissance humanist and Roman Catholic Church Christian theology. His scholarly name Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus comprises the following three elements: the Latin noun desiderium ; the Greek adjective ???s???? meaning "desired", and, in the form Erasmus, also the name of a St....
's treatise 'Enichiridion militis Christiani'), St. Jerome in his Study
St. Jerome in His Study (Dürer)

St. Jerome in His Study is an engraving of 1514 in art by the German artist Albrecht D?rer.In the engraving, St. Jerome sits behind a desk, engrossed in work....
, and the much-debated Melencolia I (both 1514).

In 1515, he created his woodcut of the Rhinoceros
Dürer's Rhinoceros

D?rer's Rhinoceros is the name commonly given to a woodcut created by Germany Painting and printmaker Albrecht D?rer in 1515. The image was based on a written description and brief sketch by an unknown artist of an Indian Rhinoceros that had arrived in Lisbon earlier that year....
 which had arrived in Lisbon
Lisbon

Lisbon is the Capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the Lisbon and capital of the Lisbon region. Its municipalities of Portugal, which matches the city proper excluding the larger continuous conurbation, has a municipal population of 564,477 in , while the Lisbon Metropolitan Area in total has around 2.8 million inha...
 from a written description and sketch by another artist, without ever seeing the animal himself. Despite being a relatively inaccurate image of the Indian rhinoceros
Indian Rhinoceros

The Indian Rhinoceros or the Great One-horned Rhinoceros or the Asian One-horned Rhinoceros is a large mammal found in Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and in Assam, India....
, 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. In the years leading to 1520 he produced a wide range of works, including portraits in tempera
Tempera

File:Duccio The-Madonna-and-Child-128.jpgTempera is a type of artist's paint and associated Art techniques and materials that were known from the classical world, where it appears to have taken over from encaustic painting and was the main medium used for panel painting and illuminated manuscripts in the Byzantine world and the Middle Ages...
 on linen
Linen

Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
 in 1516.

Patronage of Maximilian I

From 1512, Maximilian I
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I of Habsburg was Holy Roman Empire from 1508 until his death, but had ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his reign, from circa 1483....
, became Dürer's major patron. His commissions included The Triumphal Arch, a vast work printed from 192 separate blocks, the symbolism of which is partly informed by Pirckheimer's translation of Horapollo
Horapollo

Horapollo is supposed author of a treatise on Egyptian hieroglyphs, extant in a Byzantine Greek language translation by one Philippus, titled Hieroglyphica, dating to about the 5th century....
's Hieroglyphica. The design program and explanations were devised by Johannes Stabius
Johannes Stabius

Johannes Stabius was an Austrian cartographer of Vienna who developed, around 1500, the heart-shape projection map later developed further by Johannes Werner....
, the archtectural design by the master builder and court-painter Jörg Kölderer and the woodcutting itself by Hieronymous Andreae, with Dürer as designer-in-chief. The Arch was followed by the Triumphal Procession, the program of which was worked out in 1512 by and includes woodcuts by Albrecht Altdorfer
Albrecht Altdorfer

Albrecht Altdorfer was a German Painting, printmaker and architect of the Renaissance era, the leader of the Danube School in southern Germany, and a near-contemporary of Albrecht D?rer....
 and Hans Springinklee
Hans Springinklee

Hans Springinklee was a Germany artist from Nuremberg, best known for his woodcuts. He was a pupil of Albrecht D?rer....
, as well as Dürer.

Dürer worked in 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 in lithography
Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface. By contrast, in intaglio a plate is engraving, etching or mezzotint to make cavities to contain the printing ink, and in woodblock printing and letterpress ink is applied to the raised surfaces of letters or images....
. Dürer's work on the book was halted for an unknown reason, and the decoration was continued by artists including Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Lucas Cranach the Elder was a Germany Painting and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was born Lucas Sunder at Kronach in upper Franconia, and learned the art of drawing from his father....
 and Hans Baldung
Hans Baldung

Hans Baldung, known as Hans Baldung Grien/Gr?n . Germany Renaissance artist as Painting and printmaker in woodcut. He was considered the most gifted student of Albrecht D?rer....
. Dürer also made several portraits of the Emperor, including one shortly before Maximilian's death in 1519.

Journey to the Netherlands (1520-1521)

Chris
Maximilian's sudden death came at a time when Dürer was concerned he was losing "my sight and freedom of hand" (perhaps to arthritis
Arthritis

Arthritis is a group of conditions involving damage to the joints of the body. Arthritis is the leading cause of disability in people older than fifty-five years....
) and increasingly affected by the writings of Martin Luther
Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a Germans monk, theology, university professor, priest, father of Protestantism, and Protestant Reformers whose ideas started the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western culture....
. 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
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I of Spain, of the Spanish realms from 1516 until his abdication in 1556....
, who was to be crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle. Dürer journeyed with his wife and her maid via the Rhine
Rhine

File:Swiss Grand Canyon.jpgThe Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at , with an average discharge of more than ....
 to Cologne
Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants....
 and then to Antwerp
Antwerp

||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions....
, where he was well-received and produced numerous drawings in silverpoint
Silverpoint

Silverpoint is a traditional drawing technique first used by Medieval scribes on manuscripts....
, chalk and charcoal. In addition to going to the coronation, he made excursions to Cologne
Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants....
 (where he admired the painting of Stefan Lochner
Stefan Lochner

Stefan Lochner was a German late Gothic art painter.His style, famous for its clean appearance, combined Gothic attention towards long flowing lines with brilliant colours with a Flemish influenced realism and attention to detail....
), Nijmegen
Nijmegen

Nijmegen is a municipality and a city in the east of the Netherlands, near the Germany border. It is considered to be the oldest city in the Netherlands and celebrated its 2000th year of existence in 2005....
, 's-Hertogenbosch
's-Hertogenbosch

's-Hertogenbosch , colloquially known as Den Bosch ? translated in French language as Bois-le-Duc, in German language as Herzogenbusch, in Spanish language as Bolduque and in Italian language as Boscoducale ? is a municipality in the Netherlands, and also the capital of the province of North Brabant....
, Bruges
Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
 (where he saw Michelangelo
Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
's Madonna of Bruges
Madonna of Bruges

The Madonna of Bruges is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo, of Mary, mother of Jesus with the infant Jesus.Michelangelo's depiction of the Madonna and Child differs significantly from Madonna and Child, which tended to feature a pious Virgin smiling down on an infant held in her arms....
), Ghent
Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region, Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys River and became in the Middle Ages one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe....
 (where he admired van Eyck
Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck was an Early Netherlandish painting active in Bruges and considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century....
's altarpiece), and Zeeland
Zeeland

Zeeland , also called Zealand in English language and Zeelandic, is a province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium....
.

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
Old master print

An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term....
 at this time. Unlike paintings, their sale was very rarely documented. 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 met Conrad Meit, Bernard van Orley
Bernard van Orley

Bernard van Orley , also called Barend van Orley, Bernaert van Orley or Barend van Brussel, was a significant Flemings Northern Renaissance painter and draughtsman, and also a leading designer of tapestries and stained glass....
, Jean Prevost
Jean Prévost

Jean Pr?vost was a France writer and Maquis fighter.Born in in Saint-Pierre-l?s-Nemours, his father was a principal in Montivilliers. After his secondary studies at the lyc?e Corneille in Rouen, he studied at the lyc?e Henri-IV in Paris under the philosopher Alain, to prepare for his entry to the ?cole normale sup?rieure, in 1919....
, Gerard Horenbout, Jean Mone
Jean Mone

Jean Mone was a German-Flemish sculptor, summoned from Spain to the Netherlands by roman emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1520. He worked to introduce Italian Renaissance style to Flemish sculpture....
, Joachim Patinir
Joachim Patinir

Joachim Patinir, also called de Patinier and de Patiner , was a Flanders Northern Renaissance History painting and Landscape painting Painting from the area of modern Wallonia....
 & Tommaso Vincidor
Tommaso Vincidor

Tommaso di Andrea Vincidor was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect who trained with Raphael and spent most of his career in the Netherlands....
, though he did not, it seems, meet Quentin Matsys
Quentin Matsys

Quentin Matsys was a painter in the Flemish tradition and a founder of the Antwerp school. He was born at Leuven, where he was trained as an ironsmith....
.

At the request of Christian II of Denmark
Christian II of Denmark

Christian II was a Danish monarch and King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden , under the Kalmar Union. Christian was born the son of King Hans of Denmark and Christina of Saxony, at Nyborg Castle in 1481 and succeeded his father as king and regent in Denmark and Norway, where he later was to be succeeded by his uncle King Frederick I of Denmar...
 Dürer went to Brussels
Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium....
 to paint the King's portrait. There he saw "the things which have been sent to the king from the golden land" — the Aztec
Aztec

Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl and who achieved political and military dominance over large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology....
 treasure that Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés

Hern?n Cort?s de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marqu?s del Valle de Oaxaca was a Spain conquistador who led an expedition that caused the conquest of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the Crown of Castile, in the early 16th century....
 had sent home to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V following the fall of Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
. Dürer wrote that this treasure "was much more beautiful to me than miracles. These things are so precious that they have been valued at 100,000 florins". Dürer also appears to have been collecting for his own cabinet of curiosities
Cabinet of curiosities

For the 2002 novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, see The Cabinet of Curiosities'For the 2008 Jane's Addiction box set, see A Cabinet of Curiosities...
, and he sent back to Nuremberg various animal horns, a piece of coral
Coral

Corals are marine organisms from the class Anthozoa and exist as small sea anemone?like polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals....
, some large fish fins, and a wooden weapon from the East Indies.

Having secured his pension, Dürer finally returned home in July 1521, having caught an undetermined illness—perhaps malaria
Malaria

Malaria is a Vector -borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. It is widespread in Tropics and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa....
 —which afflicted him for the rest of his life, and greatly reduced his rate of work.


Final years in Nuremberg (1521-28)


On his return to Nuremberg, Dürer worked on a number of grand projects with religious themes, including a Crucifixion
Crucifixion

Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution , whereby the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead....
 scene and a Sacra Conversazione
Sacra conversazione

In art, the sacra conversazione, which translates as Sacred or Holy Conversation in English, but is normally used in the Italian, refers to a depiction of the Madonna with infant Jesus amidst a group of saints....
, though neither was completed. This may have been in part to his declining health, but perhaps also because of the time he gave to the preparation of his theoretical works on geometry
Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers....
 and perspective, the proportions
Body proportions

While there is significant variation in anatomical proportions between people, there are many references to body proportions that are intended to be canonical, either in art, measurement, or medicine....
 of men and horses, and fortification
Fortification

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defense in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs....
.

However, one consequence of this shift in emphasis was that during the last years of his life, Dürer produced comparatively little as an artist. In painting, there was only a portrait of Hieronymus Holtzschuher, a Madonna and Child (1526), Salvator Mundi (1526), and two panels showing St. John
John the Apostle

John the Apostle was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Christian tradition identifies him as the author of several New Testament works: the Gospel of John, the Epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation....
 with St. Peter in front and St. Paul
Paul of Tarsus

Saint Paul, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul or Paul of Tarsus , was a Hellenistic Judaism, who called himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles", and was, together with Saint Peter and James the Just, the most notable of early Christian missionaries....
 with St. Mark
Mark the Evangelist

Saint Mark the Evangelist , also known as John Mark, is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark and a companion of Saint Peter....
 in the background. This last great work, the Four Apostles
The Four Apostles

The Four Apostles is a painting by the German Renaissance master Albrecht D?rer. It was finished in 1526, the last of his large works. It depicts the four apostles larger-than-life-size....
, was given by Dürer to the City of Nuremberg—although he was given 100 guilders in return. An inscription relates the figures to the four humours
Four humours

Erich Adickes, Eduard Spranger, Ernst Kretschmer, and Erich Fromm all theorized on the four temperaments and greatly shaped our modern theories of temperament....
.

As for engravings, Dürer's work was restricted to portraits and illustrations for his treatise. The portraits include Cardinal-Elector Albert of Mainz
Albert of Mainz

Cardinal Albert of Hohenzollern was Prince-elector and Archbishop of Mainz from 1514 to 1545, and Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1513 to 1545....
; Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony; the humanist
Humanism

Humanism is a broad category of ethics that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularly rationalism, without resorting to the supernatural or alleged divine authority from religious texts....
 scholar Willibald Pirckheimer
Willibald Pirckheimer

Willibald Pirckheimer was a German Renaissance lawyer, author and Renaissance humanist, a wealthy and prominent figure in Nuremberg in the 16th century, and a member of the governing City Council for two periods....
; Philipp Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon

Philipp Melanchthon was a German professor and theologian, a significant character in the Protestant Reformation, a key leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and a friend and associate of Martin Luther....
, and Erasmus of Rotterdam
Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus was a Netherlands Renaissance humanist and Roman Catholic Church Christian theology. His scholarly name Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus comprises the following three elements: the Latin noun desiderium ; the Greek adjective ???s???? meaning "desired", and, in the form Erasmus, also the name of a St....
. For those of the Cardinal
Albert of Mainz

Cardinal Albert of Hohenzollern was Prince-elector and Archbishop of Mainz from 1514 to 1545, and Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1513 to 1545....
, Melanchthon, and Dürer's final major work, a drawn portrait of the Nuremberg patrician Ulrich Starck, Dürer depicted the sitters in profile, perhaps reflecting a more mathematical approach.

Despite complaining of his lack of a formal classical education
Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean World; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity ....
 Dürer was greatly interested in intellectual matters and learned much from his boyhood friend Willibald Pirckheimer
Willibald Pirckheimer

Willibald Pirckheimer was a German Renaissance lawyer, author and Renaissance humanist, a wealthy and prominent figure in Nuremberg in the 16th century, and a member of the governing City Council for two periods....
, whom he no doubt consulted on the content of many of his images. 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 on mathematics
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
 in German, as well as being cited later by Galileo and Kepler
Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler was a Germans mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century Scientific revolution. He is best known for his eponymous Kepler's laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astrononomy....
. 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 at the age of fifty-six.

Dürer died in Nuremberg at the age of 56, leaving an estate valued at 6,874 florins—a considerable sum. His large house (purchased in 1509 from the heirs of the astronomer Bernhard Walther), where his workshop was located and where his widow lived until her death in 1539, remains a prominent Nuremberg landmark. It is now a museum.

Dürer and the Reformation

Although Dürer was a Roman Catholic, it is clear from his writings that he was highly sympathetic to Martin Luther
Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a Germans monk, theology, university professor, priest, father of Protestantism, and Protestant Reformers whose ideas started the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western culture....
. 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." In a letter to Nicholas Kratzer
Nicholas Kratzer

Nicholas Kratzer was a German mathematician, astronomer and horologist. Much of Kratzer's professional life was spent in England where he was appointed astronomer to King Henry VIII....
 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
Nuremberg

Nuremberg is a city in the Germany State of Bavaria, in the Regierungsbezirk of Middle Franconia. It is situated on the Pegnitz River river and the Rhine?Main?Danube Canal and is Franconia's largest city....
 City Council mandating Lutheran sermons and services in March 1525. Notably, Dürer had contacts various reformers, such as Zwingli
Huldrych Zwingli

Huldrych Zwingli was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Born during a time of emerging Old Swiss Confederacy patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenaries, he attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly centre of Renaissance humanism....
, Andreas Karlstadt
Andreas Karlstadt

Andreas Rudolph Bodenstein von Karlstadt , better known as Andreas Karlstadt or Andreas Carlstadt, was a Germany Christian theologian during the Protestant Reformation....
, Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon

Philipp Melanchthon was a German professor and theologian, a significant character in the Protestant Reformation, a key leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and a friend and associate of Martin Luther....
, Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus was a Netherlands Renaissance humanist and Roman Catholic Church Christian theology. His scholarly name Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus comprises the following three elements: the Latin noun desiderium ; the Greek adjective ???s???? meaning "desired", and, in the form Erasmus, also the name of a St....
 and Cornelius Grapheus from whom Dürer received Luther's 'Babylonian Captivity' in 1520. In spite of all these reasons to believe Dürer was sympathetic to Lutheranism, at least in its early manifestations, he never in any way abandoned the Catholic Church.

Dürer's later works have also been claimed to show Protestant sympathies. For example, his engraving of The Last Supper of 1523 has often been understood to have an evangelical
Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestantism Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s.Most adherents consider its key characteristics to be: a belief in the need for personal conversion ; some expression of the gospel in effort; a high regard for Biblical authority; and an emphasis on the death and resurrection of Jesus....
 theme, focussing as it does on Christ espousing the Gospel
Gospel

In Christianity, a gospel is generally one of the first four books of the New Testament that describe the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus....
, as well the inclusion of the Eucharist
Eucharist

The Eucharist, also called Holy Communion or Lord's Supper and other names, is a Christianity sacrament commemorating, by consecrating bread and wine, the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before his arrest, and eventual crucifixion, when he gave them bread saying, "This is my body", and wine...
ic cup, an expression of Protestant utraquism, although this interpretation has been questioned. The delaying of the engraving of St Philip
Philip the Apostle

Saint Philip was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Later Christian traditions describe Philip as the apostle who Proselytism in Greece, Syria, and Phrygia....
, 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 an iconoclast
Iconoclasm

Iconoclasm, Greek for "image-breaking," is the deliberate destruction of important symbolic images recognized within a culture, religion, or society....
, in his last years he evaluated and questioned the role of art in religion.

Legacy and influence

stamp]]

Dürer exerted a huge influence on the artists of succeeding generations, especially in printmaking
Printmaking

Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a 'print....
, the medium through which his contemporaries mostly experienced his art, as his paintings were predominately 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
Raphael

Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone was an Italy Painting and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings....
, Titian
Titian

File:Tizian 090.jpg Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, born 1473/1490 , died 27 August 1576, better known as Titian , was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venice school of the Italian Renaissance....
, and Parmigianino
Parmigianino

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola , also known as Francesco Mazzola or more commonly as Parmigianino or sometimes "Parmigiano", was a prominent Italy Mannerism Painting and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma....
, who entered into collaborations with printmakers to distribute their work beyond their local region.

His work in engraving
Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass engraving are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing images on paper as prints or illustra...
 seems to have had an intimidating effect upon his German successors, the "Little Masters
Little Masters

The Little Masters , were a group of German printmakers who worked in the first half of the 16th century, primarily in engraving. They specialized in very small finely detailed old master print, some no larger than a postage stamp....
", who attempted few large engravings but continued Dürer's themes in tiny, rather cramped compositions. The early Lucas van Leyden
Lucas van Leyden

Lucas van Leyden , also named either Lucas Hugensz or Lucas Jacobsz, was a Netherlands engraver and Painting, born and mainly active in Leiden, who was among the first Dutch exponents of genre painting and is generally regarded as one of the finest engraving in the history of art....
 was the only Northern European engraver to successfully continue to produce large engravings in the first third of the century. The generation of Italian engravers who trained in the shadow of Dürer all either directly copied parts of his landscape backgrounds (Giulio Campagnola
Giulio Campagnola

Giulio Campagnola was an Italy engraver and Painting, whose few, rare old master print translated the rich Venetian Renaissance style of oil paintings of Giorgione and the early Titian into the medium of engraving, and who also invented the stipple technique....
 and Christofano Robetta), or whole prints (Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi

Marcantonio Raimondi, also simply Marcantonio, was an Italy engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists mainly of prints copying paintings....
 and Agostino Veneziano
Agostino Veneziano

Agostino Veneziano, whose real name was Agostino de' Musi, was an important and prolific Italian engraver of the Renaissance....
). However, Dürer's influence became less dominant after 1515, when Marcantonio perfected his new engraving style, which in turn traveled over the Alps to dominate Northern engraving also.

In painting, 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, and have been blamed for some of the wilder excesses of artists' self-portraiture, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Dürer has never fallen from critical favour, and there have been revivals of interest in his works Germany in the Dürer Renaissance of about 1570 to 1630, in the early nineteenth century, and in German Nationalism from 1870 to 1945.

He is commemorated on the calendar
Calendar of Saints (Lutheran)

The Lutheran Calendar of Saints is a listing which details the primary annual festivals and events that are celebrated liturgically by the Lutheran Church....
 of the Lutheran Church with other artists on April 6. The crater Dürer on Mercury
Mercury (planet)

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest Orbital eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt....
 was named in his honor.

Dürer's theoretical works

In all his theoretical works, in order to communicate his theories in the German language
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
, rather than Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
, Dürer used graphic expressions based on a vernacular
Vernacular

Vernacular refers to the native language of a country or a locality. In general linguistics, it is used to describe local languages as opposed to Lingua franca, official standards or global languages....
, 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 Martin Luther
Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a Germans monk, theology, university professor, priest, father of Protestantism, and Protestant Reformers whose ideas started the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western culture....
 had begun with his translation of the Bible
Luther Bible

The Luther Bible is a German language Bible translation by Martin Luther, first printed with both testaments in 1534. This translation is considered to be largely responsible for the evolution of the modern German language....
.

The Four Books on Measurement


Dürer's work on geometry
Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers....
 is called the 'Four Books on Measurement' ('Underweysung der Messung mit dem Zirckel und Richtscheyt'). The first book focuses on linear geometry. Dürer's geometric constructions include helices, conchoids
Conchoid (mathematics)

A conchoid is a curve derived from a fixed point O, another curve, and a length d. For every line through O that intersects the given curve at A the two points on the line which are d from A are on the conchoid....
 and epicycloid
Epicycloid

In geometry, an epicycloid is a plane curve produced by tracing the path of a chosen point of a circle ? called epicycle ? which rolls without slipping around a fixed circle....
s. He also draws on Apollonius
Apollonius

Apollonius may be:Historical people:* Apollonius Cronus , philosopher of the Megarian school* Apollonius Dyscolus , grammarian* Apollonius Molon , rhetorician...
, and Johannes Werner
Johannes Werner

Johann Werner was a Germany parish priest in Nuremberg and a mathematician. His primary work was in astronomy, mathematics, and geography, although he was also considered a skilled Tool....
's 'Libellus super viginti duobus elementis conicis' of 1522. The second book moves onto two dimensional geometry, i.e. the construction of regular polygons. Here Dürer favours the methods of Ptolemy
Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman Greek mathematics, Greek astronomy, geographer and astrologer. He lived in History of Roman Egypt, and was probably born there in a town in the Thebaid called Ptolemais Hermiou; he died in Alexandria around 168 AD....
 over Euclid
Euclid

Euclid , floruit 300 BC, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematics and is often referred to as the Father of Geometry. He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I ....
. The third book applies these principles of geometry to architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, engineering
Engineering

Engineering is the discipline and profession of applying Technology and science knowledge and utilizing natural laws and physical resources in order to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and process that safely realize a desired objective and meet specified criteria....
 and typography
Typography

Typography is the art and techniques of typesetting, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques....
. In architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
 Dürer cites Vitruvius
Vitruvius

File:Vitruvius.jpgMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Ancient Rome writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices....
 but elaborates his own classical designs and columns. In typography
Typography

Typography is the art and techniques of typesetting, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques....
, Dürer depicts the geometric construction of the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
, relying on Italian precedent. However, his construction of the Gothic alphabet
Gothic alphabet

The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed by Philostorgius to Ulfilas , used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language....
 is based upon an entirely different modular system. The fourth book completes the progression of the first and second by moving to three-dimensional forms and the construction of polyhedrons. Here Dürer discusses the five Platonic solid
Platonic solid

In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex set polyhedron that is regular polyhedron, in the sense of a regular polygon. Specifically, the faces of a Platonic solid are congruence regular polygons, with the same number of faces meeting at each vertex....
s, as well as seven Archimedean
Archimedean

Archimedean means of or pertaining to or named in honor of the Greece mathematics Archimedes. These are most commonly:* Archimedean property...
 semi-regular solids, as well as several of his own invention. In all these, Dürer shows the objects in net
Net (polyhedron)

In geometry the net of a polyhedron is an arrangement of edge-joined polygons in the plane which can be folded to become the faces of the polyhedron....
. Finally, Dürer discusses the Delian Problem
Doubling the cube

Doubling the cube is one of the three most famous geometry problems unsolvable by compass and straightedge construction. It was known to the Egyptian mathematics, Greek mathematics, and Indian mathematics....
  and moves on to the 'construzione legittima', a method of depicting a cube in two dimensions through linear perspective. It was in Bologna
Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Po Valley , between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, exactly between the Reno River and the S?vena River....
 that Dürer was taught (possibly by Luca Pacioli
Luca Pacioli

Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli was an Italy mathematician and Franciscan friar, collaborator with Leonardo da Vinci, and seminal contributor to the field now known as accounting....
 or Bramante) the principles of linear perspective, and evidently became familiar with the 'costruzione legittima' in a written description of these principles found only, at this time, in the unpublished treatise of Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca

Piero della Francesca was an Italian artist of the Italian Renaissance. To contemporaries, he was known as a mathematician and geometer as well as an artist, though now he is chiefly appreciated for his art....
. He was also familiar with the 'abbreviated construction' as described by Alberti and the geometrical construction of shadows, a technique of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italy polymath, being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, Painting, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
. Although Dürer made no innovations in these areas, he is notable as the first Northern European to treat matters of visual representation in a scientific way, and with understanding of Euclidean principles. In addition to these geometrical constructions, Dürer discusses in this last book of Underweysung der Messung an assortment of mechanisms for drawing in perspective from models, such as the camera lucida
Camera lucida

A camera lucida is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists.The camera lucida performs an optics superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing....
 and provides woodcut illustrations of these methods that are often reproduced in discussions of perspective.

The Four Books on Human Proportion

Dürer's work on human proportions
Body proportions

While there is significant variation in anatomical proportions between people, there are many references to body proportions that are intended to be canonical, either in art, measurement, or medicine....
 is called the 'Four Books on Human Proportion' ('Vier Bücher von Menschlicher Proportion) of 1528. 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 both Vitruvius
Vitruvius

File:Vitruvius.jpgMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Ancient Rome writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices....
 and empirical observations of, "two to three hundred living persons," in his own words. The second book includes eight further types, broken down not into fractions but an Albertian
Leone Battista Alberti

Leon Battista Alberti was an Italy author, artist, architect, poet, Catholic_priest, linguistics, philosopher, and cryptography, and general Renaissance humanist polymath....
 system, which Dürer probably learnt from Francesco di Giorgio
Francesco di Giorgio

Francesco di Giorgio Martini was an Italy painter of the Sienese School, a sculptor, an :Category:Italian architects and theorist, and a military engineer who built almost seventy fortifications for the Duke of Urbino....
's 'De 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 of convex and concave mirrors; here Dürer also deals with human physiognomy
Physiognomy

Physiognomy is the assessment of a person's character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face. The term physiognomy can also refer to the general appearance of a person, object or terrain, without reference to its implied characteristics....
. The fourth book is devoted to the theory of movement.

Appended to the third 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 and Leonardo, Dürer was most troubled by understanding not just the abstract notions of beauty but 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 or inspired
Artistic inspiration

Inspiration refers to an unconscious burst of creativity in an artistic, musical, or other intellectual endeavor such as the invention of a new scientific theory....
 to a concept of 'selective inward synthesis'. 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."

See also

  • Dürer paintings and prints


Books/sources

  • Giulia Bartrum (2002), Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy, British Museum Press. ISBN 0714126330
  • Craig Harbison, "Dürer and the Reformation: The Problem of the Re-dating of the St. Philip Engraving", in The Art Bulletin, Vol. 58, No. 3, 368-373. Sep., 1976.
  • Jane Campbell Hutchinson (1990), Albrecht Dürer: A Biography, Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691002975
  • Wilhelm Kurth (Editor) (2000), The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer, Dover Publications. ISBN 0486210979 — still in print in paperback.
  • David Landau & Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print, Yale, 1996, ISBN 0300068832
  • Erwin Panofsky
    Erwin Panofsky

    Erwin Panofsky was a German Jewish art historian who emigrated to America and remains highly influential in the modern academic study of iconography....
    (1945), "The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer", Princeton, ISBN 0691003033
  • David Hotchkiss Price, Albrecht Dürer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation and the Art of Faith, Michigan, 2003.
  • Walter L. Strauss (Editor) (1973), The Complete Engravings, Etchings and Drypoints of Albrecht Durer, Dover Publications. ISBN 0486228517 — still in print in paperback.


External links

  • at Museumsportal Schleswig-Holstein
  • . Selected pages scanned from the original work. Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.
  • 1538, from Rare Book Room
    Rare Book Room

    Rare Book Room is an educational website for the repository of digitally scanned rare books made freely available to the public.Starting around 1996 the California based company Octavo began scanning rare and important books from libraries around the world....
    .