Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
DESTINED FOR GREATNESS
Albrecht Dürer was an accomplished painter, draughtsman, and printmaker whose profound methodological, mathematical, and scholarly approaches to his crafts established him as the premier artist of the German Renaissance. A highly intelligent man, Dürer wrote a number of theoretical discourses on proportion and perspective in art. Evidently conscious of his own talent and virtuosity, the artist also had a penchant for creating flattering self-portraits.
Dürer was born in Nuremberg, Germany. As a teen, he apprenticed with painter and woodcut artist Michael Wolgemut; he then traveled a bit before returning to his native country to marry Agnes Frey in an arranged union.
Albrecht Dürer’s Nuremberg home is today a museum dedicated to the artist’s life and work.
Although Dürer’s artistic talent was evident at an early age, he ultimately came into his own during visits to Italy in 1494 and 1505, respectively, where he drank in the exquisite beauty of the Italian Renaissance masters. A number of Dürer’s works following these visits feature a variety of allegorical, mythological, and religious themes with a marked Italian influence. Dürer also possessed a deep appreciation of nature—demonstrated in his vivid watercolor landscapes—and a desire to perfect proportions, which accounts for his superior renderings of human and animal subjects.
As Dürer’s oeuvre grew, so did his fame and reputation. He was the painter to the Holy Roman Emperors for much of his career. —RJR
Notable works: Self-Portrait, 1500; A Young Hare, 1502; Adam and Eve, 1504.
FUN FACT
Already confident in his artistic abilities, Albrecht Dürer drew his first self-portrait at the age of 13—well before he began his art apprenticeship.