"Albrecht Durer, Best German Artist of the Renaissance"

 

Self-Portrait at age 28 Albrecht Durer
(1500) Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Albrecht Durer (1471- 1528) a German artist who was a painter and print maker.  His father was a goldsmith. "It is probably that Albert Durer began to assist his father in his trade at a very early age, but he always manifested a preference for engraving. " (Albert 57) It was,  "maintained that he received lessons from Martin Schongauer, a celebrated engraver,  surname "Le beau Martin," and known by the name Martin Schon." (Albert 57)  

Albrecht had different intentions in mind." Having already acquired the art of working in gold." "I felt a greater inclination to turn my attention to painting than to pursue the trade of a goldsmith." (Albert 57)  His father was not happy that he wasted time on the trade. Although his father supported him, he placed Durer in a 3 year term with Michael Wholgemuth, a painter and printmaker. After his apprenticeship he travel to German, Netherlands and Italy. 

Durer's greatest work showed in engravings and woodcuts. "In 1498, He published a series of fifteen woodcuts illustrating the Revelation of Saint John, known as the Apocalypse series." (Cunningham 336) In the photo below is a piece in that series, Knight, Death, and the Devil. These series had sold in large quantities.

Knight, Death, and the Devil, (1530) engraving

"Various scholars and followers of Durer's style have copied his engravings with more or less success." "Among them may be mentioned Hans Wagner, Hans Schauflein, Bartholomew Beham, Albert Altdorfen, Jacques Binck, the first scholar of Albert Durer, Wenceslaus of Olmuztz (1481), Wennig (1509), and Marc AntonioRamondi. " (Albert 66) 

By the end of his life, Durer was acknowledged as one of the greatest figures of his time." (Cunningham 337) Like Martin Luther, "he used the new possibilities of the printing press to disseminate his ideas." (Cunningham 337)  He also worked on a book called, Four Books on Human Proportion. His details of human bodies and animals was represented so precisely. Durer was known as the best German Artist of the Renaissance.

Young Hare (1502) Watercolour

                                                   Who was Albrecht Durer? (Video 5:15)

“Albert Durer.” The Illustrated Magazine of Art, vol. 3, no. 13, Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1854, pp. 57–70, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20538210.

Cunningham."The Renaissance in the North." Cunningham and Reich's Culture and Values, Chapter 14., pp. 335-337.

The National Gallery. "Who was Albrecht Durer?"YouTube, 1 Dec 2021,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkOC4Tm5u9U.  Accessed 22 Mar. 2022. 

Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer. Accessed 22 Mar. 2022.