Dürer, Albrecht

PAINTER, GRAPHICAL ARTIST (GERMANY)
BORN 21 May 1471, Nürnberg, Bayern - DIED 6 Apr 1528, Nürnberg, Bayern
GRAVE LOCATION Nürnberg, Bayern: Sankt-Johannis Friedhof (I, 0649)

Painter of the early renaissance. He was the third child of a family with eighteen children. Worked in his father's workshop as a goldsmith and afterwards became a pupil of the painter Michael Welgemut (for three years).

From 1490 he travelled to Colmar, Basel and Strasbourg. After his return to Nürnberg he married there in 1494. At the end of 1494 he went to Venice for half a year, to visit his friend Willibald Pirckheimer who studied at Padua at the time. From 1505 to 1507 he payed another visit to Venice where he met Bellini, whom he admired much.

Back in Germany Dürer studied mathematics, geometry and Latin, read humanist literature and went to see scholars instead of artists. In 1512 he became Court Painter to Emperor Maximilian I and in 1520 he witnessed the coronation of Charles V at Aix-la-Chapelle. Dürer visited many places in Belgium and was honoured and celebrated himself. He returned home in bad health (probably because he had been looking for dead whales in Zeeland, Holland), but he continued to work until his death in 1528.

Although he had a large workshop in Nürnberg nobody followed into his footsteps. Apart from his paintings he was also much admired for his drawings, engravings and woodcuts. Dürer also wrote treatises on various subjects.

Work: Apocalypse (1498, woodcut); Madonna of the Rose Garlands (c.1506, Prague, damaged); Self Portrait (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).

Related persons
• cooperated with Hirschvogel, Veit
• travelled with Nützel, Kaspar
• was a friend of Pirkheimer, Willibald

Images

Albrecht Dürer's grave at the Sankt-Johannis Friedhof, Nürnberg.
Picture by Androom (11 Aug 1998)

 

Dürer-Pirkheimer fountain in Nürnberg.
Picture by Androom (28 Feb 2009)

 

"Kaiser Maximilian I".
(Wien: Kunsthistorisches Museum)
 

"Pfeifer und Trommler'.
(Köln: Walraff-Richartz Museum)
 

"Laute spielende Engel".
   (1497, Berlin: Kupferstichkabinett)
 

"Bildnis der Elisabeth Tucher".
   (1499, Kassel: Schloss Wilhelmshöhe)
 

"Bildnistryptychon des Oswolt Krel".
   (1499, München: Alte Pinakothek)
 

"Ritratto di Giovianni".
   (1506, Genova: Musei di Strada Nuova - Palazzo Rossi)
 

"Bildnis von Dürers Lehrer Michael Wolgemut".
   (1516, Nürnberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum)
 

"Madonna mit Kind (Haller Madonna)".
   (c1498, Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art)
 

Sources
Dürer Holbein Grünewald, Vernissage - Die Zeitschrift zur Ausstellung, Vernissage-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1998
• Murray, Peter & Linda Murray, The Penguin Dictionary of Arts & Artists, Fourth Edition, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1981
• Reeth, Adelaïde van & Guido Peeters, Herinneringen in Steen, De Haan/Unieboek, Houten, 1988
Schilderkunst van A tot Z, REBO, Lisse, 1990
• Schwemmer, Wilhelm, Nuremberg, A Guide to the Old Town, Nuremberg Tourist Office, Nürnberg, 1991


Duret, Francisque Joseph

Published: 01 Jan 2006
Last update: 05 Mar 2024