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Albrecht Durer
the man who modernized arts
“Why has God given me
such magnificent talent? It is
a curse as well as a great
blessing”
Albrecht Durer

Who is Albrecht Durer?
Albrecht Durer is the greatest exponent of Northern
European Renaissance art. While an important painter,
in his own day Durer was renowned foremost for his
graphic works. Artists across Europe admired and copied
Durer's innovative and powerful prints, ranging from
religious and mythological scenes, to maps and exotic
animals. Durer was a humanist and a creator. His
awareness of his own role as an artist is apparent in his
frontal, Christ-like Self Portrait, 1500, just one of many self
portraits that he painted in his career. More than simply
producing works for his own time, Durer saw his fame and
his contribution as enduring, and as part of history.

What has Albrecht Durer done?
He influenced
European art
Theory of Art
Mathematics
Art of fortification
Adoption of
Lutheranism
in Nuremberg

Durer’s biography
Albrecht Durer was the third son of Albrecht
Durer and Barbara Holfer. He was one of their
eighteen children.
Portrait Diptych of
Durer's Parents
(1490)

Albrecht Durer was born on May 21st
1471 in Imperial Free City of
Nuremberg.
At the age of fifteen Durer was
apprenticed to the principal painter of
the town, Michael Wolgemut, a prolific
if undistinguished producer of small
works in the late Gothic style. Durer
learned not only painting but also
wood carving and elementary copper
engraving under Wolgemut. At the end
of his apprenticeship in 1490 he
travelled (Wanderjahre). He practiced in
Colmar, Basel and in the Low
Countries (Holland) before he
returned to Nuremberg. From this
period, little of the work that can be
attributed to him with certainty
survives.
Portrait of the Artist
Holding a Thistle
(1493)

On July 9, 1494 Durer was
married, according to an
arrangement made during
his absence, to Agnes Frey,
the daughter of a local
merchant. His relationship
with his wife is unclear and
her reputation has suffered
from a posthumous assault
by Durer's friends. He did
not remain in Nuremberg
long; in the autumn of 1494
he travelled to Italy, leaving
his wife at Nuremberg. Agnes Durer (1494)

More than any other Northern
European artist, Durer was
engaged by the artistic practices
and theoretical interests of Italy.
He visited the country twice,
from 1494 to 1495 and again
from 1505 to 1507, absorbing
firsthand some of the great
works of the Italian Renaissance,
as well as the classical
heritage and theoretical writings
of the region. The influence
of Venetian color and design can
be seen in the Feast of the Rose
Garlands altarpiece (1506)

Durer was back in
Nuremberg by mid-1507.
He remained in Germany
until 1520. His reputation
spread all over Europe. He
was on terms of friendship
or friendly communication
with all the masters of the
age, and Raphael held
himself honored in
exchanging drawings with
Durer.
Durer lived and worked in this house from 1509
to 1528. Now it’s a museum

Durer's talent, ambition,
and sharp, wide-ranging
intellect earned him the
attention and friendship of
some of the most
prominent figures in
German society. He
became official court
artist to Holy Roman
Emperors Maximilian I and
his successor CharlesV,
for whom Durer designed
and helped execute a
range of artistic projects.
Emperor Maximilian
(1518)

After another journey to the Netherlands
Durer finally returned home in July 1521,
having caught an undetermined illness
which afflicted him for the rest of his life.
Back in Nuremberg he began work on a
series of religious pictures. Many
preliminary sketches and studies survive,
but no paintings on the grand scale were
ever carried out. This was due in part to
his declining health, but more because of
the time he gave to the preparation of his
theoretical works on geometry and
perspective, proportion and fortification.
Albrecht Durer died
on April 6th 1528

Durer’s influence on the European art
Durer developed a new
interest in the human form, as
demonstrated by his nude and
antique studies. He was also
one of the first artists to
depict animals
“photorealistically”.
“As I grew older, I realized that it
was much better to insist on the
genuine forms of nature, for
simplicity is the greatest adornment
of art”
Albrecht Durer

Durer’s influence on theory of art
He wrote Four Books of Human
Proportion (Vier Bücher von
menschlichen Proportion), only
the first of which was published
during his lifetime (1528), as well
as an introductory manual of
geometric theory for students
(Underweysung der Messung,
1525), which includes the first
scientific treatment of perspective
by a Northern European artist.

Durer’s influence on mathematics
Descriptive geometry originated
with Durer in his introductory
manual of geometric theory for
students although it was only put
on a sound mathematical basis in
later works of mathematicians.
One of the methods of
overcoming the problems of
projection, and describing the
movement of bodies in space, is
descriptive geometry. Durer's
remarkable achievement was
through applying mathematics to
art, he developed such
fundamentally new and
important ideas within
mathematics itself.

Durer’s influence on the art of fortification
In 1527 Durer published
another work, this time on
fortifications. There were
strong reasons why he
produced a work on
fortifications at this time,
for the people of Germany
were in fear of an invasion
by the Turks. Many cities,
including Nuremberg,
would improve their
fortifications using the
methods set out by Durer
in this book.

Durer’s influence on the adoption of
Lutheranism in Nuremberg
In Nuremberg, a vibrant center of
humanism and one of the first to
officially embrace the principles of
the Reformation, Durer had access
to some of Europe's outstanding
theologians and scholars, including
Erasmus, Philipp Melanchthon, and
Willibald Pirkheimer, each captured
by the artist in shrewd portraits.
For Nuremberg's town hall, the
artist painted two panels of the
Four Apostles (1526), bearing texts
in Martin Luther's translation that
pay tribute to the city's adoption of
Lutheranism.

Durer’s art is so multifarious! Explore it!

Resources used
• http://www.albrecht-durer.org/biography.html
• http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/durr/hd_durr.htm
• http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Durer.html
• http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/durer_albrecht.html
• http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/albrecht_durer.html
• http://meganandvince.blogspot.ru/2011/03/nuremberg-bavarian-
secret-to-pass-on.html

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Albrecht Durer of Nuremberg

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