Albrecht Durer Introduction

Albrecht Durer was born in 1471 the son of a goldsmith who settled in Nuremberg in 1455. The young Albrecht was first apprenticed to his father and was then bound for three years to the painter Michael Wolgemut, whose large workshop also produced woodcut book illustrations for the printer Anton Koberger, Durer's godfather. He traveled for four years visiting Colmar, Basle, and Strasbourg and ...see more »in May 1494 he returned to Nuremberg and married. In the autumn of 1494 he went to Venice. During this visit he met Giovanni Bellini, whom he greatly admired, and painted several works for the German merchants of Venice, which shows some knowledge of Leonardo Da Vinci. On his return Durer intensified the learned side of his art and personality studying mathematics, geometry, Latin, and humanist literature, and sought the company of scholars rather than that of his fellow artisans. This departure in mode of life and thought was directly traceable to the influence of Leonardo Da Vinci and Mantegna and the example of Bellini, and though it was common enough in Italy, it was unprecedented in Germany. Durer's enormous oeuvre consists of woodcuts and engravings, paintings and drawings, and he also wrote treatises on measurement, fortification, proportion, and artistic theory, besides his detailed diary of his Netherlands journey. He was the main channel through which Italian Renaissance forms and ideas were introduced into the North, and he combined these with the individualism general in German art and inherited from the Gothic tradition. His greatest influence was through his graphic work. He is one of the masters of woodcut and copper engravings and these easily transportable models carried his technique, subjects, designs and style all over Europe and had a considerable influence in Italy. He extended the range of woodcut and engraving by perfecting the technique of both, and raised the standard of graphic art by the training he gave to the workmen who executed his designs. In 1512, he became Court Painter to the Emporer Maximillian and in July 1520 he journeyed to the Netherlands to obtain from his successor, Charles V, the ratification of his post and pension. He saw the coronation of the new Emperor at Aachen and was confirmed in his office then visited Antwerp, Brussels, Malines, Cologne, Middleburg, Brugues, and Ghent, and was honored and feted all along the route. He returned home in July 1521, and despite ill health resulting from fever, probably contracted in the swamps of Zealand, where he had ventured in the hope of seeing a dead whale, he worked unremittingly until his death.