Portrait of Dürer's Father at 70
Encyclopedia
Portrait of Dürer's Father at 70 (or The Painter's Father) is a 1497 oil on lime painting attributed to the German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer
, now in the National Gallery
, London. Along with the 1490 Albrecht Dürer the Elder with a Rosary
, it is the second of two portraits of the artist's Hungarian father Albrecht Dürer the elder (1427–1502). The sitter's similarity to the earlier portrait, as well to a 1486 silverpoint
drawing believed to be a self-portrait by his father, leave no doubt as to his identity. The London panel is generally thought to be one of a number of copies of a lost original. It is in poor condition, having suffered paint loss in the background and in areas of the cloak. It was cleaned in 1955, revealing especial quality in the description of the face, leading some to believe that it is a Dürer original. However this claim is not made by the National Gallery who
display it as "attributed to Albrecht Dürer".
Although a master goldsmith
and well traveled, Albrecht the elder lived in poverty all his life. With his much younger wife Barbara Holper, he fathered 17 children, of which only two reached adulthood. He died in 1502, five years after this portrait was completed. He was supportive of his son's precocious talent and recognised it from an early age, sending him to apprenticeship with Michael Wolgemut
, one of the highest regarded painters in Nuremberg at the time. From his travels Albrecht sr. came into contact with the second generation of northern renaissance
painters, and through them passed on a key influence on his son's artistic development.
Dürer painted two portraits of his father, one from April 1490 -the month before before he left on his travels as a journeyman painter- and Portrait at 70 just after his return home to Nuremberg
. Following his father's death the artist wrote an affecting eulogy in which he said that in his life the older man "underwent manifold afflictions, trials and adversities. But he won just praise from all who knew him".
He was born Albrecht Ajtósi in 1427 in Ajtós, near the village of Gyula
in the Kingdom of Hungary
. In 1455 had moved to Nuremberg and changed his name to Dürer to adapt to the local Nuremberg dialect. He took up an apprenticeship as a goldsmith
under the tutelage of Hieronymus Holfer. In 1467, the year his apprenticeship ended, he married Barbara, Holfer's 15 year old daughter. The couple had 18 children, only two of whom survived into adulthood.
Albrecht traveled a great deal, and came into contact with the Netherlandish
painters while in Flanders
. While there he was exposed to the work of both Jan van Eyck
and Rogier van der Weyden, and developed a strong appreciation for them which he past on to his son, whose art displays a large debt to these painters. From his father, Dürer learned to appreciate the fine, almost forensic, attention to realistic detail favoured by the northern painters, as well as their use of brilliant colour. These lessons were key to the young artist's development, and set him apart from his fellow German artists whose work can often feel crude and heavy-handed by comparison.
Albrecht apprenticed his son to Michael Wolgemut
, a painter also aware of the northern artists, when he was 14. Already the young artist was showing such potential that his father believed he should be trained by the best local master available.
.
Compared to his mild and pious expression in the 1490 portrait, Albrecht now seems impatient, while in the words of Marcel Brion the "stunned look in his eyes seems already to foresee his own death...[the] almost haggard intensity of [his] questioning gaze [is] directed upon thoes about him as if they could solve the urgent problems to which his own set lips had no answer."
Albrecht retains some of the handsomenesss of his youth; he has strong bone structure with the high cheek-bones characteristic of the Slav and Magyar
blood in Hungarian appearance. He has almost exotic eyes, which approach his temples in an almost eastern way.
The painting is dated and signed by the artist with his signature monogram with a large open A enclosing a small lowercase d.
for Charles I of England
, at a time when Dürer was regarded as the city's proudest son. Both were later sold by Cromwell
. Albrecht the elder's portrait was eventually acquired by the National Gallery in 1904, where is bears the Inventory number NG1938. The self-portrait was bought by the Museo del Prado
in Madrid.
When the National Gallery bought the painting, they had little information about its attribution or provenance. A piece of a paper label was found on the reverse which was believed to have dated from the 17th century, and was similar to another found on the back of Dürer's 1498 self portrait. In addition they noted sitter's resemblance to the 1490 portrait and 1486 assumed self-portrait, and found a 1639 inventory record which described a portrait of his father as wearing a black hat and wearing "a dark yellow gown wherein his hands are hidden in the wide sleeves painted upon a reddish ground all crack’t". These discoveries lead to the belief that it was the Dürer painting recorded in Charles I possession.
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. 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 Northern Renaissance ever since...
, now in the National Gallery
National gallery
The National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...
, London. Along with the 1490 Albrecht Dürer the Elder with a Rosary
Portrait Diptych of Dürer's Parents
Portrait Diptych of Dürer's Parents is the collective name for two small late 15th-century oil-on-oak panels, separated since at least 1588, which probably formed halves of a diptych by the German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer. Each shows one of the artist's parents, Albrecht Dürer the...
, it is the second of two portraits of the artist's Hungarian father Albrecht Dürer the elder (1427–1502). The sitter's similarity to the earlier portrait, as well to a 1486 silverpoint
Silverpoint
Silverpoint is a traditional drawing technique first used by Medieval scribes on manuscripts.-History:A silverpoint drawing is made by dragging a silver rod or wire across a surface, often prepared with gesso or primer. Silverpoint is one of several types of metalpoint used by scribes, craftsmen...
drawing believed to be a self-portrait by his father, leave no doubt as to his identity. The London panel is generally thought to be one of a number of copies of a lost original. It is in poor condition, having suffered paint loss in the background and in areas of the cloak. It was cleaned in 1955, revealing especial quality in the description of the face, leading some to believe that it is a Dürer original. However this claim is not made by the National Gallery who
display it as "attributed to Albrecht Dürer".
Although a master 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. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...
and well traveled, Albrecht the elder lived in poverty all his life. With his much younger wife Barbara Holper, he fathered 17 children, of which only two reached adulthood. He died in 1502, five years after this portrait was completed. He was supportive of his son's precocious talent and recognised it from an early age, sending him to apprenticeship with Michael Wolgemut
Michael Wolgemut
Michael Wolgemut was a German painter and printmaker, born in Nuremberg.-Biography:Little is known of Wolgemut's private life...
, one of the highest regarded painters in Nuremberg at the time. From his travels Albrecht sr. came into contact with the second generation of northern renaissance
Early Netherlandish painting
Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...
painters, and through them passed on a key influence on his son's artistic development.
Dürer painted two portraits of his father, one from April 1490 -the month before before he left on his travels as a journeyman painter- and Portrait at 70 just after his return home to Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
. Following his father's death the artist wrote an affecting eulogy in which he said that in his life the older man "underwent manifold afflictions, trials and adversities. But he won just praise from all who knew him".
Albrecht Dürer the Elder
Following his father's death five years after this portrait was painted, Dürer wrote that Albrecht the elder "passed his life in great toil and stern hard labour, having nothing for his support save what with his hand for himself, his wife and his children, so that he had little enough. He underwent manifold afflictions, trials and adversities. But he won just praise from all who knew him for he lived an honourable Christian life, was a man patient spirit, mild and peaceable to all and very thankful to God. For himself he had little need of company and worldly pleasures; he was also of few words, and was a God-fearing man."He was born Albrecht Ajtósi in 1427 in Ajtós, near the village of Gyula
Gyula, Hungary
Gyula is a city in Békés county in south-eastern Hungary. It lies close to the border with Romania, on the river Fehér-Körös.-History:The first recorded reference to Gyula was in a document dated 1313 which mentions a monastery called Gyulamonostor . By 1332 the settlement around the monastery was...
in the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages
The Kingdom of Hungary was formed from the previous Principality of Hungarywith the coronation of Stephen I in AD 1000. This was a result of the conversion of Géza of Hungary to the Western Church in the 970s....
. In 1455 had moved to Nuremberg and changed his name to Dürer to adapt to the local Nuremberg dialect. He took up an apprenticeship as a 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. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...
under the tutelage of Hieronymus Holfer. In 1467, the year his apprenticeship ended, he married Barbara, Holfer's 15 year old daughter. The couple had 18 children, only two of whom survived into adulthood.
Albrecht traveled a great deal, and came into contact with the Netherlandish
Early Netherlandish painting
Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...
painters while in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
. While there he was exposed to the work of both Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck was a Flemish painter active in Bruges and considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century....
and Rogier van der Weyden, and developed a strong appreciation for them which he past on to his son, whose art displays a large debt to these painters. From his father, Dürer learned to appreciate the fine, almost forensic, attention to realistic detail favoured by the northern painters, as well as their use of brilliant colour. These lessons were key to the young artist's development, and set him apart from his fellow German artists whose work can often feel crude and heavy-handed by comparison.
Albrecht apprenticed his son to Michael Wolgemut
Michael Wolgemut
Michael Wolgemut was a German painter and printmaker, born in Nuremberg.-Biography:Little is known of Wolgemut's private life...
, a painter also aware of the northern artists, when he was 14. Already the young artist was showing such potential that his father believed he should be trained by the best local master available.
Description
Albrecht the elder is shown, aged 70, in half view against a flat reddish background. He is wearing a black Hungarian hat and long brown robe with a black undergarment. He has an intelligent piercing gaze, although it may be interpreted as hostile glance towards the viewer. The toll of age wears heavily on the old man's gaunt features. His fleshy cheeks are heavily folded, his lips thin and his hair wispy and in disarray. His skin is heavily wrinkled, and his eyes are narrow and give a weary appearance. By comparison to the 1490 Albrecht Dürer the Elder with a Rosary, his hands, though visible, are inactive, possibly due to arthritisArthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
.
Compared to his mild and pious expression in the 1490 portrait, Albrecht now seems impatient, while in the words of Marcel Brion the "stunned look in his eyes seems already to foresee his own death...[the] almost haggard intensity of [his] questioning gaze [is] directed upon thoes about him as if they could solve the urgent problems to which his own set lips had no answer."
Albrecht retains some of the handsomenesss of his youth; he has strong bone structure with the high cheek-bones characteristic of the Slav and Magyar
Magyar
Magyar may refer to:* A nation and an ethnic group native to and primarily associated with Hungarian people* The Hungarian language,...
blood in Hungarian appearance. He has almost exotic eyes, which approach his temples in an almost eastern way.
The painting is dated and signed by the artist with his signature monogram with a large open A enclosing a small lowercase d.
Provenance and attribution
There is strong evidence that the portrait was originally hung alongside Dürer's 1498 Self-portrait. Both are of the same dimensions and show the subject at half length. They were gifted in 1650 as a pair by the city of Nuremberg to Thomas Howard, Earl of ArundelThomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel
Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel KG, was a prominent English courtier during the reigns of King James I and King Charles I, but he made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician. When he died he possessed 700 paintings, along with large collections of sculpture,...
for Charles I of England
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, at a time when Dürer was regarded as the city's proudest son. Both were later sold by Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
. Albrecht the elder's portrait was eventually acquired by the National Gallery in 1904, where is bears the Inventory number NG1938. The self-portrait was bought by the Museo del Prado
Museo del Prado
The Museo del Prado is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It features one of the world's finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection, and unquestionably the best single collection of...
in Madrid.
When the National Gallery bought the painting, they had little information about its attribution or provenance. A piece of a paper label was found on the reverse which was believed to have dated from the 17th century, and was similar to another found on the back of Dürer's 1498 self portrait. In addition they noted sitter's resemblance to the 1490 portrait and 1486 assumed self-portrait, and found a 1639 inventory record which described a portrait of his father as wearing a black hat and wearing "a dark yellow gown wherein his hands are hidden in the wide sleeves painted upon a reddish ground all crack’t". These discoveries lead to the belief that it was the Dürer painting recorded in Charles I possession.
Sources
- Allen, Jessie. Albrecht Dürer. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0-7661-9475-2
- Bailey, Martin. Dürer. London: Phidon Press, 1995. ISBN 0-7148-3334-7
- Conway, Martin. "Dürer Portraits, Notes". The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Volume 33, No. 187, October 1918. 142–143
- Brion, MarcelMarcel BrionMarcel Brion was a French essayist, literary critic, novelist, and historian. -Biography:The son of a lawyer, Brion was classmates in Thiers with Marcel Pagnol and Albert Cohen. After completing his secondary education in Champittet, Switzerland, he studied law at the University of Aix-en-Provence...
. Dürer. London: Thames and Hudson, 1960. - Campbell Hutchison, Jane. Albrecht Dürer: A Guide to Research. New York: Garland, 2000. ISBN 0-8153-2114-7
- Foister, Susan. Dürer's Nuremberg Legacy: The case of the National Gallery portrait of Dürer's father. British MuseumBritish MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, 21 March 2003. - Sturge Moore, Thomas. Albert Dürer. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-4191-0533-7