Early Life

• Albrecht was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1471.

• At 13, he became apprenticed to his father, a goldsmith.

• At 23, he returned to Nuremberg from Italy where he studied the techniques of great Italian artists.

• Although the Renaissance began in Italy, its ideas soon spread to Northern Europe.

Albrecht Dürer was without doubt the

greatest artist of the Northern

Renaissance.

Dürer’s Artistic CareerDürer’s Artistic Career

• He created a series of 13 woodcut prints for a German edition of the Bible.

• This gave him the idea of printing copies on the printing press and selling them by the thousands. Similar to buying a poster or print today.

• He created a series of 13 woodcut prints for a German edition of the Bible.

• This gave him the idea of printing copies on the printing press and selling them by the thousands. Similar to buying a poster or print today.

“The Walk”- the couple is being spied upon by a skeleton with an hour-glass.

In 1496 he was hired to paint...

• Frederick the Wise

This wealthy and powerful patron

recommended Albrect to other rich and

powerful Germans.

• Maximillian I, the Holy Roman

Emperor

• German leaders considered themselves to be decendents

of the Roman Caesars.

He produced a trio of his greatest copperplate engravings, such as, the following… It is believed that they were meant to be interpreted

together.

• “A study of Praying

Hands”

• “The Hare”

As you have probably noticed,

Albrecht Dürer had a distinctive way of signing his work.

Dürer, the portrait painter

• These are portraits Dürer painted of his parents.

• Dürer was one of the first to create self-portraits as a visual notebook of his life.

Albrecht DÜrer

'Thus I, Albrecht Dürer from Nuremburg, painted myself with indelible colors at the

age of 28 years.”

Albrecht Dürer’s final self-portrait, dated 1500.

Some who saw his paintings were disturbed by the Christ-like appearance, but what Dürer was trying to express was that man is a work of art, and God’s greatest creation.

Self-Portrait, 1493

Self-Portrait, 1493

• 1. Dürer’s textbook on artistic theory became famous.

Dürer’s later career was spent on writing and illustrating several textbooks on the theories of

mathematics in art.

• After a second trip to Itlay, he painted a great

Italian masterpiece,

“The Feast of the Rose Garlands”, impressing even the great Italian

artists.

This painting today is in the Prague National Museum.

• He made the largest woodcut engraving ever created, a 10 feet by 11 feet paper triumphal arch for Maximillian I.

• It was carved from 192 blocks of wood and was filled with beautifully detailed figures.

• Dürer painted one of his greatest masterpieces, “Four Apostles”, in 1526.

• Presented originally as his gift to the city of Nuremberg.

• Rather than simply imitating what others were doing, Dürer was very much an innovator. He is, for example, the first artist who is known to have painted a self-portrait and to have done a landscape painting of a specific scene.

• In 1521 he journeyed to the Netherlands searching for fresh ideas, when he fell ill with malaria. Until he died in 1528, Dürer suffered spells of fainting, depression, fevers, and headaches, making his last years miserable.

• Rather than simply imitating what others were doing, Dürer was very much an innovator. He is, for example, the first artist who is known to have painted a self-portrait and to have done a landscape painting of a specific scene.

• In 1521 he journeyed to the Netherlands searching for fresh ideas, when he fell ill with malaria. Until he died in 1528, Dürer suffered spells of fainting, depression, fevers, and headaches, making his last years miserable.