102-695: The Dürerbund (named after Albrecht Dürer ) was an organization of writers and artists with a strong influence on the intellectual life of the middle class in the German Reich , but also in Austria and Switzerland . The Dürerbund was founded in 1902 by the German publisher Ferdinand Avenarius , a brother of the philosopher Richard Avenarius , and the art historian Paul Schumann . It resided in Dresden-Blasewitz and had close connections to Deutscher Werkbund and
204-827: A vernacular , craftsmen's language. For example, Schneckenlinie ("snail-line") was his term for a spiral form. Thus, Dürer contributed to the expansion in German prose which Luther had begun with his translation of the Bible . Dürer's work on geometry is called the Four Books on Measurement ( Underweysung der Messung mit dem Zirckel und Richtscheyt or Instructions for Measuring with Compass and Ruler ). The first book focuses on linear geometry. Dürer's geometric constructions include helices , conchoids and epicycloids . He also draws on Apollonius , and Johannes Werner 's Libellus super viginti duobus elementis conicis of 1522. The second book moves onto two-dimensional geometry, i.e.
306-484: A goldsmith, he showed such a precocious talent in drawing that he was allowed to start as an apprentice to Michael Wolgemut at the age of fifteen in 1486. A self-portrait, a drawing in silverpoint , is dated 1484 ( Albertina, Vienna ) "when I was a child", as his later inscription says. The drawing is one of the earliest surviving children's drawings of any kind, and, as Dürer's Opus One, has helped define his oeuvre as deriving from, and always linked to, himself. Wolgemut
408-446: A great number of other brilliant artists and scholars of the time who became his friends, like Johannes Stabius , Konrad Peutinger , Conrad Celtes , and Hans Tscherte (an imperial architect). Dürer was proud of his ability. When the emperor tried to sketch Dürer an idea on charcoa, Dürer took the material from Maximilian's hand, finished the drawing and told him: "This is my scepter." On another occasion, Maximilian noticed that
510-495: A highly detailed landscape background and animals. His landscapes of this period, such as Pond in the Woods and Willow Mill , are quite different from his earlier watercolours. There is a much greater emphasis on capturing atmosphere, rather than depicting topography. He made a number of Madonnas , single religious figures, and small scenes with comic peasant figures. Prints are highly portable and these works made Dürer famous throughout
612-505: A large stock of prints with him and wrote in his diary to whom he gave, exchanged or sold them, and for how much. This provides rare information of the monetary value placed on prints at this time. Unlike paintings, their sale was very rarely documented. While providing valuable documentary evidence, Dürer's Netherlandish diary also reveals that the trip was not a profitable one. For example, Dürer offered his last portrait of Maximilian to his daughter, Margaret of Austria , but eventually traded
714-438: A lifelong preoccupation. A series of extant drawings show Dürer's experiments in human proportion, leading to the famous engraving of Adam and Eve (1504), which shows his subtlety while using the burin in the texturing of flesh surfaces. This is the only existing engraving signed with his full name. Dürer created large numbers of preparatory drawings, especially for his paintings and engravings, and many survive, most famously
816-408: A mirror in front of the viewer, it reflected his painting of the buildings which had been seen previously, so that the vanishing point was centered from the perspective of the participant. Brunelleschi applied the new system of perspective to his paintings around 1425. This scenario is indicative, but faces several problems, that are still debated. First of all, nothing can be said for certain about
918-558: A miserly shrew with a bitter tongue, who helped cause Dürer's death at a young age. It has been hypothesized by many scholars that Albrecht was bisexual or homosexual, due to the recurrence of allegedly homoerotic themes in some of his works (e.g. The Men's Bath ), and the nature of his correspondence with close friends. Within three months of his marriage, Dürer left for Italy, alone, perhaps stimulated by an outbreak of plague in Nuremberg. He made watercolour sketches as he traveled over
1020-723: A more dramatic portrait style. Dürer has never fallen from critical favour, and there have been significant revivals of interest in his works in Germany in the Dürer Renaissance of about 1570 to 1630, in the early nineteenth century, and in German nationalism from 1870 to 1945. The Lutheran Church commemorates Dürer annually on 6 April, along with Michelangelo , Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Burgkmair . Perspective (graphical) Linear or point-projection perspective (from Latin perspicere 'to see through')
1122-460: A mural at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna . Apparently, this reflects a seventeenth-century "artists' legend" about the previously mentioned encounter (in which the emperor held the ladder) – that this encounter corresponds with the period Dürer was working on the Viennese murals. In 2020, during restoration work, art connoisseurs discovered a piece of handwriting now attributed to Dürer, suggesting that
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#17330848509391224-468: A painter, trained under the older Albrecht. The other surviving brother, Endres Dürer (1484–1555), took over their father's business and was a master goldsmith. The German name "Dürer" is a translation from the Hungarian, "Ajtósi". Initially, it was "Türer", meaning doormaker, which is "ajtós" in Hungarian (from "ajtó", meaning door). A door is featured in the coat-of-arms the family acquired. Albrecht Dürer
1326-442: A person an object looks N times (linearly) smaller if it has been moved N times further from the eye than the original distance was. The most characteristic features of linear perspective are that objects appear smaller as their distance from the observer increases, and that they are subject to foreshortening , meaning that an object's dimensions parallel to the line of sight appear shorter than its dimensions perpendicular to
1428-476: A portrait of him with great care and engrave him on a copper plate to create a lasting memorial of the Christian man who helped me overcome so many difficulties." In a letter to Nicholas Kratzer in 1524, Dürer wrote, "because of our Christian faith we have to stand in scorn and danger, for we are reviled and called heretics". Most tellingly, Pirckheimer wrote in a letter to Johann Tscherte in 1530: "I confess that in
1530-472: A printer and publisher in the year of Dürer's birth. He became the most successful publisher in Germany, eventually owning twenty-four printing-presses and a number of offices in Germany and abroad. Koberger's most famous publication was the Nuremberg Chronicle , published in 1493 in German and Latin editions. It contained an unprecedented 1,809 woodcut illustrations (albeit with many repeated uses of
1632-472: A series of experiments between 1415 and 1420, which included making drawings of various Florentine buildings in correct perspective. According to Vasari and Antonio Manetti , in about 1420, Brunelleschi demonstrated his discovery by having people look through a hole in the back of a painting he had made. Through it, they would see a building such as the Florence Baptistery . When Brunelleschi lifted
1734-519: A set of fifteen small engravings on the same theme in 1512. Complaining that painting did not make enough money to justify the time spent when compared to his prints, he produced no paintings from 1513 to 1516. In 1513 and 1514 Dürer created his three most famous engravings : Knight, Death and the Devil (1513, probably based on Erasmus 's Handbook of a Christian Knight ), St. Jerome in His Study , and
1836-431: A sixth in 1518; a technique he may have abandoned as unsuited to his aesthetic of methodical, classical form. From 1512, Maximilian I became Dürer's major patron. He commissioned The Triumphal Arch , a vast work printed from 192 separate blocks, the symbolism of which is partly informed by Pirckheimer's translation of Horapollo 's Hieroglyphica . The design program and explanations were devised by Johannes Stabius ,
1938-562: A valuable commission from the emigrant German community for the church of San Bartolomeo . This was the altar-piece known as the Feast of the Rosary (or the Feast of Rose Garlands ). It shows Pope Julius II and Emperor Maximilian I , peacefully kneeling in adoration before her throne, both with their crowns taken off. It also includes portraits of members of Venice's German community and of Dürer himself on
2040-407: A wealth of visual experiences in order to imagine beautiful things. Dürer's belief in the abilities of a single artist over inspiration prompted him to assert that "one man may sketch something with his pen on half a sheet of paper in one day, or may cut it into a tiny piece of wood with his little iron, and it turns out to be better and more artistic than another's work at which its author labours with
2142-602: A written description and sketch by another artist, without ever seeing the animal himself. An image of the Indian rhinoceros , the image has such force that it remains one of his best-known and was still used in some German school science text-books as late as last century. In the years leading to 1520 he produced a wide range of works, including the woodblocks for the first western printed star charts in 1515 and portraits in tempera on linen in 1516. His only experiments with etching came in this period, producing five between 1515–1516 and
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#17330848509392244-411: Is also thought to have originated in his workshop around this time. These sketches and watercolours show the same careful attention to detail and human proportion as Dürer's other work, and his illustrations of grappling, long sword, dagger, and messer are among the highest-quality in any fencing manual. Dürer exerted a huge influence on the artists of succeeding generations, especially in printmaking,
2346-471: Is based on qualitative judgments, and would need to be faced against the material evaluations that have been conducted on Renaissance perspective paintings. Apart from the paintings of Piero della Francesca , which are a model of the genre, the majority of 15th century works show serious errors in their geometric construction. This is true of Masaccio's Trinity fresco and of many works, including those by renowned artists like Leonardo da Vinci. As shown by
2448-669: Is close to an object under observation and directly facing an observer's eyes (i.e., the observer is on a line normal or perpendicular to the plane). Then draw straight lines from the object to the observer. The area on the plane where the drawn lines pass through the plane is a point-projection prospective image resembling what is seen by the observer. Additionally, a central vanishing point can be used (just as with one-point perspective) to indicate frontal (foreshortened) depth. The earliest art paintings and drawings typically sized many objects and characters hierarchically according to their spiritual or thematic importance, not their distance from
2550-726: Is evident in Ancient Greek red-figure pottery . Systematic attempts to evolve a system of perspective are usually considered to have begun around the fifth century BC in the art of ancient Greece , as part of a developing interest in illusionism allied to theatrical scenery. This was detailed within Aristotle 's Poetics as skenographia : using flat panels on a stage to give the illusion of depth. The philosophers Anaxagoras and Democritus worked out geometric theories of perspective for use with skenographia . Alcibiades had paintings in his house designed using skenographia , so this art
2652-462: Is here that we learn of his theories concerning 'ideal beauty'. Dürer rejected Alberti's concept of an objective beauty, proposing a relativist notion of beauty based on variety. Nonetheless, Dürer still believed that truth was hidden within nature, and that there were rules which ordered beauty, even though he found it difficult to define the criteria for such a code. In 1512/13 his three criteria were function ("Nutz"), naïve approval ("Wohlgefallen") and
2754-456: Is historically recorded to have entered the emperor's service in 1511, and the mural's date is calculated to be around 1505, but it is possible they have known and worked with each other earlier than 1511. Dürer's exploration of space led to a relationship and cooperation with the court astronomer Johannes Stabius . Stabius also often acted as Dürer's and Maximilian's go-between for their financial problems. In 1515 Dürer and Stabius created
2856-673: Is not a single occurrence of the word "experiment". Fourth, the conditions listed by Manetti are contradictory with each other. For example, the description of the eyepiece sets a visual field of 15°, much narrower than the visual field resulting from the urban landscape described. Soon after Brunelleschi's demonstrations, nearly every interested artist in Florence and in Italy used geometrical perspective in their paintings and sculpture, notably Donatello , Masaccio , Lorenzo Ghiberti , Masolino da Panicale , Paolo Uccello , and Filippo Lippi . Not only
2958-581: Is not systematically related to the rest of the composition. Medieval artists in Europe, like those in the Islamic world and China, were aware of the general principle of varying the relative size of elements according to distance, but even more than classical art were perfectly ready to override it for other reasons. Buildings were often shown obliquely according to a particular convention. The use and sophistication of attempts to convey distance increased steadily during
3060-490: Is now thought unlikely that Dürer cut any of the woodblocks himself; this task would have been performed by a specialist craftsman. However, his training in Wolgemut's studio, which made many carved and painted altarpieces and both designed and cut woodblocks for woodcut, evidently gave him great understanding of what the technique could be made to produce, and how to work with block cutters. Dürer either drew his design directly onto
3162-403: Is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts ; the other is parallel projection . Linear perspective is an approximate representation, generally on a flat surface, of an image as it is seen by the eye . Perspective drawing is useful for representing a three-dimensional scene in a two-dimensional medium, like paper . It is based on the optical fact that for
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3264-442: Is relatively simple, having been long ago formulated by Euclid. Alberti was also trained in the science of optics through the school of Padua and under the influence of Biagio Pelacani da Parma who studied Alhazen 's Book of Optics . This book, translated around 1200 into Latin, had laid the mathematical foundation for perspective in Europe. Piero della Francesca elaborated on De pictura in his De Prospectiva pingendi in
3366-644: The Betende Hände ( Praying Hands ) from circa 1508, a study for an apostle in the Heller altarpiece. He continued to make images in watercolour and bodycolour (usually combined), including a number of still lifes of meadow sections or animals, including his Young Hare (1502) and the Great Piece of Turf (1503). In Italy, he returned to painting, at first producing a series of works executed in tempera on linen . These include portraits and altarpieces, notably,
3468-647: The Four Books on Human Proportion ( Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion ) of 1528. The first book was mainly composed by 1512/13 and completed by 1523, showing five differently constructed types of both male and female figures, all parts of the body expressed in fractions of the total height. Dürer based these constructions on both Vitruvius and empirical observations of "two to three hundred living persons", in his own words. The second book includes eight further types, broken down not into fractions but an Albertian system, which Dürer probably learned from Francesco di Giorgio 's De harmonica mundi totius of 1525. In
3570-453: The Gothic alphabet is based upon an entirely different modular system. The fourth book completes the progression of the first and second by moving to three-dimensional forms and the construction of polyhedra . Here Dürer discusses the five Platonic solids , as well as seven Archimedean semi-regular solids, as well as several of his own invention. Dürer's work on human proportions is called
3672-622: The Great Passion and the Life of the Virgin , both published in 1511 together with a second edition of the Apocalypse series. The post-Venetian woodcuts show Dürer's development of chiaroscuro modelling effects, creating a mid-tone throughout the print to which the highlights and shadows can be contrasted. Other works from this period include the thirty-seven Little Passion woodcuts, published in 1511, and
3774-607: The Paumgartner altarpiece and the Adoration of the Magi . In early 1506, he returned to Venice and stayed there until the spring of 1507. It was in Venice that he took up the material of blue paper , which he used to execute preparatory drawing for paintings he completed there in 1505–1507. By this time Dürer's engravings had attained great popularity and were being copied. In Venice he was given
3876-492: The Rhine to Cologne and then to Antwerp , where he was well received and produced numerous drawings in silverpoint, chalk and charcoal. In addition to attending the coronation, he visited Cologne (where he admired the painting of Stefan Lochner ), Nijmegen , 's-Hertogenbosch , Bruges (where he saw Michelangelo 's Madonna of Bruges ), Ghent (where he admired Jan van Eyck 's Ghent Altarpiece ), and Zeeland . Dürer took
3978-597: The east doors of the Florence Baptistery . Masaccio (d. 1428) achieved an illusionistic effect by placing the vanishing point at the viewer's eye level in his Holy Trinity ( c. 1427 ), and in The Tribute Money , it is placed behind the face of Jesus. In the late 15th century, Melozzo da Forlì first applied the technique of foreshortening (in Rome, Loreto , Forlì and others). This overall story
4080-463: The garden city movement , as Avenarius was a key person in these organizations too. The Dürerbund was not only the leading cultural organization in Germany that time, moreover it aimed at contributing to aesthetic education and education to love of nature of the broad masses. For many years, it was organized like a reading circle in which publications as Der Kunstwart , a magazine initiated and edited by Avenarius, could be distributed effectively. Among
4182-473: The nude into Northern art, through his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists , has secured his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance . This is reinforced by his theoretical treatises, which involve principles of mathematics for linear perspective and body proportions . Dürer was born on 21 May 1471, the third child and second son of Albrecht Dürer
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4284-717: The " Little Masters " who attempted few large engravings but continued Dürer's themes in small, rather cramped compositions. Lucas van Leyden was the only Northern European engraver to successfully continue to produce large engravings in the first third of the 16th century. The generation of Italian engravers who trained in the shadow of Dürer all either directly copied parts of his landscape backgrounds ( Giulio Campagnola , Giovanni Battista Palumba , Benedetto Montagna and Cristofano Robetta ), or whole prints ( Marcantonio Raimondi and Agostino Veneziano ). However, Dürer's influence became less dominant after 1515, when Marcantonio perfected his new engraving style, which in turn travelled over
4386-435: The 1470s, making many references to Euclid. Alberti had limited himself to figures on the ground plane and giving an overall basis for perspective. Della Francesca fleshed it out, explicitly covering solids in any area of the picture plane. Della Francesca also started the now common practice of using illustrated figures to explain the mathematical concepts, making his treatise easier to understand than Alberti's. Della Francesca
4488-455: The Alps to also dominate Northern engraving. Dürer had relatively little influence in Italy, where probably only his altarpiece in Venice was seen, and his German successors were less effective in blending German and Italian styles. His intense and self-dramatizing self-portraits have continued to have a strong influence up to the present, especially on painters in the 19th and 20th century who desired
4590-533: The Alps. Some have survived and others may be deduced from accurate landscapes of real places in his later work, for example his engraving Nemesis . In Italy, he went to Venice to study its more advanced artistic world. Through Wolgemut's tutelage, Dürer had learned how to make prints in drypoint and design woodcuts in the German style, based on the works of Schongauer and the Housebook Master . He also would have had access to some Italian works in Germany, but
4692-677: The Cardinal , Melanchthon, and Dürer's final major work, a drawn portrait of the Nuremberg patrician Ulrich Starck, Dürer depicted the sitters in profile. Despite complaining of his lack of a formal classical education, Dürer was greatly interested in intellectual matters and learned much from Willibald Pirckheimer, whom he no doubt consulted on the content of many of his images. He also derived great satisfaction from his friendships and correspondence with Erasmus and other scholars. Dürer succeeded in producing two books during his lifetime. The Four Books on Measurement were published at Nuremberg in 1525 and
4794-641: The Elder and Barbara Holper, who married in 1467. Albrecht Dürer the Elder (originally Albrecht Ajtósi) was a successful goldsmith who by 1455 had moved to Nuremberg from Ajtós , near Gyula in Hungary . He married Barbara, his master's daughter, when he himself qualified as a master. Her mother, Kinga Öllinger had some roots in Hungary too, as she was born in Sopron . The couple had eighteen children together, of which only three survived. Hans Dürer (1490–1534), also became
4896-566: The Four Apostles , was given by Dürer to the City of Nuremberg—although he was given 100 guilders in return. As for engravings, Dürer's work was restricted to portraits and illustrations for his treatise. The portraits include his boyhood friend Willibald Pirckheimer , Cardinal-Elector Albert of Mainz ; Frederick the Wise , elector of Saxony; Philipp Melanchthon , and Erasmus of Rotterdam . For those of
4998-686: The Johannisfriedhof cemetery. His large house (purchased in 1509 from the heirs of the astronomer Bernhard Walther ), where his workshop was located and where his widow lived until her death in 1539, remains a prominent Nuremberg landmark. Dürer's writings suggest that he may have been sympathetic to Luther's ideas, though it is unclear if he ever left the Catholic Church. Dürer wrote of his desire to draw Luther in his diary in 1520: "And God help me that I may go to Dr. Martin Luther; thus I intend to make
5100-547: The Most Necessary Accommodation of War ( De vrbibus, arcibus, castellisque condendis, ac muniendis rationes aliquot : praesenti bellorum necessitati accommodatissimae ), published by Christian Wechel (Wecheli/Wechelus) in Paris. Dürer created many sketches and woodcuts of soldiers and knights over the course of his life. His most significant martial works, however, were made in 1512 as part of his efforts to secure
5202-406: The Nuremberg master had actually participated in creating the murals at St. Stephen's Cathedral. In the recent 2022 Dürer exhibition in Nuremberg (in which the drawing technique is also traced and connected to Dürer's other works), the identity of the commissioner is discussed. Now the painting of Siegert (and the legend associated with it) is used as evidence to suggest that this was Maximilian. Dürer
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#17330848509395304-477: The Younger later changed "Türer", his father's diction of the family's surname, to "Dürer", to adapt to the local Nuremberg dialect. Because Dürer left autobiographical writings and was widely known by his mid-twenties, his life is well documented in several sources. After a few years of school, Dürer learned the basics of goldsmithing and drawing from his father. Though his father wanted him to continue his training as
5406-465: The architectural design by the master builder and court-painter Jörg Kölderer and the woodcutting itself by Hieronymous Andreae , with Dürer as designer-in-chief. The Arch was followed by The Triumphal Procession completed c. 1512. Dürer worked with pen on the marginal images for an edition of the Emperor's printed prayer book; these were quite unknown until facsimiles were published in 1808 as part of
5508-678: The beginning I believed in Luther, like our Albert of blessed memory ... but as anyone can see, the situation has become worse." Dürer may even have contributed to the Nuremberg City Council's mandating Lutheran sermons and services in March 1525. Notably, Dürer had contacts with various reformers, such as Zwingli , Andreas Karlstadt , Melanchthon, Erasmus and Cornelius Grapheus from whom Dürer received Luther's Babylonian Captivity in 1520. Yet Erasmus and C. Grapheus are better said to be Catholic change agents. Also, from 1525, "the year that saw
5610-483: The construction of regular polygons . Here Dürer favours the methods of Ptolemy over Euclid . The third book applies these principles of geometry to architecture, engineering and typography . In architecture Dürer cites Vitruvius but elaborates his own classical designs and columns . In typography, Dürer depicts the geometric construction of the Latin alphabet , relying on Italian precedent . However, his construction of
5712-455: The correctness of his perspective construction of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, because Brunelleschi's panel is lost. Second, no other perspective painting or drawing by Brunelleschi is known. (In fact, Brunelleschi was not known to have painted at all.) Third, in the account written by Antonio Manetti in his Vita di Ser Brunellesco at the end of the 15th century on Brunelleschi's panel, there
5814-640: The difficult art of using the burin to make engravings. Most likely he had learned this skill during his early training with his father, as it was also an essential skill of the goldsmith. In 1496 he executed the Prodigal Son , which the Italian Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari singled out for praise some decades later, noting its Germanic quality. He was soon producing some spectacular and original images, notably Nemesis (1502), The Sea Monster (1498), and Saint Eustace ( c. 1501 ), with
5916-464: The engraving of St. Philip , completed in 1523 but not distributed until 1526, may have been due to Dürer's uneasiness with images of saints; even if Dürer was not an iconoclast , in his last years he evaluated and questioned the role of art in religion. In all his theoretical works, in order to communicate his theories in the German language rather than in Latin , Dürer used graphic expressions based on
6018-429: The exact vantage point used in the calculations relative to the image. When viewed from a different point, this cancels out what would appear to be distortions in the image. For example, a sphere drawn in perspective will be stretched into an ellipse. These apparent distortions are more pronounced away from the center of the image as the angle between a projected ray (from the scene to the eye) becomes more acute relative to
6120-497: The first book published in lithography . Dürer's work on the book was halted for an unknown reason, and the decoration was continued by artists including Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Baldung . Dürer also made several portraits of the Emperor, including one shortly before Maximilian's death in 1519. Maximilian was a very cash-strapped prince who sometimes failed to pay, yet turned out to be Dürer's most important patron. In his court, artists and learned men were respected, which
6222-580: The first or second century until the 18th century. It is not certain how they came to use the technique; Dubery and Willats (1983) speculate that the Chinese acquired the technique from India, which acquired it from Ancient Rome, while others credit it as an indigenous invention of Ancient China . Oblique projection is also seen in Japanese art, such as in the Ukiyo-e paintings of Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815). By
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#17330848509396324-408: The first world map projected on a solid geometric sphere. Also in 1515, Stabius, Dürer and the astronomer Konrad Heinfogel [ de ] produced the first planispheres of both southern and northerns hemispheres, as well as the first printed celestial maps, which prompted the revival of interest in the field of uranometry throughout Europe. Maximilian's death came at a time when Dürer
6426-481: The goldsmith Georg. In 1493 Dürer went to Strasbourg , where he would have experienced the sculpture of Nikolaus Gerhaert . Dürer's first painted self-portrait (now in the Louvre ) was painted at this time, probably to be sent back to his fiancée in Nuremberg. Very soon after his return to Nuremberg, on 7 July 1494, at the age of 23, Dürer was married to Agnes Frey following an arrangement made during his absence. Agnes
6528-437: The happy medium ("Mittelmass"). However, unlike Alberti and Leonardo , Dürer was most troubled by understanding not just the abstract notions of beauty but also as to how an artist can create beautiful images. Between 1512 and the final draft in 1528, Dürer's belief developed from an understanding of human creativity as spontaneous or inspired to a concept of 'selective inward synthesis'. In other words, that an artist builds on
6630-515: The ladder Dürer used was too short and unstable, thus told a noble to hold it for him. The noble refused, saying that it was beneath him to serve a non-noble. Maximilian then came to hold the ladder himself, and told the noble that he could make a noble out of a peasant any day, but he could not make an artist like Dürer out of a noble. This story and a 1849 painting depicting it by August Siegert [ de ] have become relevant recently. This nineteenth-century painting shows Dürer painting
6732-529: The later periods of antiquity, artists, especially those in less popular traditions, were well aware that distant objects could be shown smaller than those close at hand for increased realism, but whether this convention was actually used in a work depended on many factors. Some of the paintings found in the ruins of Pompeii show a remarkable realism and perspective for their time. It has been claimed that comprehensive systems of perspective were evolved in antiquity, but most scholars do not accept this. Hardly any of
6834-551: The leading engraver of Northern Europe, but who died shortly before Dürer's arrival at Colmar in 1492. It is unclear where Dürer travelled in the intervening period, though it is likely that he went to Frankfurt and the Netherlands . In Colmar, Dürer was welcomed by Schongauer's brothers, the goldsmiths Caspar and Paul and the painter Ludwig. Later that year, Dürer travelled to Basel to stay with another brother of Martin Schongauer,
6936-527: The line of sight. All objects will recede to points in the distance, usually along the horizon line, but also above and below the horizon line depending on the view used. Italian Renaissance painters and architects including Filippo Brunelleschi , Leon Battista Alberti , Masaccio , Paolo Uccello , Piero della Francesca and Luca Pacioli studied linear perspective, wrote treatises on it, and incorporated it into their artworks. linear or point-projection perspective works by putting an imagery flat plane that
7038-411: The main artistic centres of Europe within a very few years. The Venetian artist Jacopo de' Barbari , whom Dürer had met in Venice, visited Nuremberg in 1500, and Dürer said that he learned much about the new developments in perspective , anatomy , and proportion from him. To Dürer it seemed that De' Barbari was unwilling to explain everything he knew, so he began his own studies, which would become
7140-703: The many widely known authors were Hermann Bahr , Christian Morgenstern , Peter Rosegger , Georg Simmel , and Carl Spitteler . Renowned personalities participated in the management board of the association, among them Adolf Bartels , Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach , Karl Lamprecht , Friedrich Naumann , and Henry Thode . Key dates of the Dürerbund: Albrecht D%C3%BCrer Albrecht Dürer ( / ˈ dj ʊər ər / DURE -ər , German: [ˈalbʁɛçt ˈdyːʁɐ] ; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528), sometimes spelled in English as Durer ,
7242-527: The many works where such a system would have been used have survived. A passage in Philostratus suggests that classical artists and theorists thought in terms of "circles" at equal distance from the viewer, like a classical semi-circular theatre seen from the stage. The roof beams in rooms in the Vatican Virgil , from about 400 AD, are shown converging, more or less, on a common vanishing point, but this
7344-490: The medium through which his contemporaries mostly experienced his art, as his paintings were predominantly in private collections located in only a few cities. His success in spreading his reputation across Europe through prints was undoubtedly an inspiration for major artists such as Raphael, Titian , and Parmigianino , all of whom collaborated with printmakers to promote and distribute their work. His engravings seem to have had an intimidating effect upon his German successors;
7446-454: The much-debated Melencolia I (both 1514, the year Dürer's mother died). Further outstanding pen and ink drawings of Dürer's period of art work of 1513 were drafts for his friend Pirckheimer. These drafts were later used to design Lusterweibchen chandeliers, combining an antler with a wooden sculpture. In 1515, he created his woodcut of a Rhinoceros which had arrived in Lisbon from
7548-603: The patronage of Maximilian I. Using existing manuscripts from the Nuremberg Group as his reference, his workshop produced the extensive Οπλοδιδασκαλια sive Armorvm Tractandorvm Meditatio Alberti Dvreri ("Weapon Training, or Albrecht Dürer's Meditation on the Handling of Weapons", MS 26-232). Another manuscript based on the Nuremberg texts as well as one of Hans Talhoffer's works, the untitled Berlin Picture Book (Libr.Pict.A.83),
7650-669: The peak and collapse of the Peasants' War , the artist can be seen to distance himself somewhat from the [Lutheran] movement..." Dürer's later works have also been claimed to show Protestant sympathies. His 1523 The Last Supper woodcut has often been understood to have an evangelical theme, focusing as it does on Christ espousing the Gospel , as well as the inclusion of the Eucharistic cup, an expression of Protestant utraquism , although this interpretation has been questioned. The delaying of
7752-477: The period, but without a basis in a systematic theory. Byzantine art was also aware of these principles, but also used the reverse perspective convention for the setting of principal figures. Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted a floor with convergent lines in his Presentation at the Temple (1342), though the rest of the painting lacks perspective elements. It is generally accepted that Filippo Brunelleschi conducted
7854-513: The picture for some white cloth after Margaret disliked the portrait and declined to accept it. During this trip he also met Bernard van Orley , Jan Provoost , Gerard Horenbout , Jean Mone , Joachim Patinir and Tommaso Vincidor , though he did not, it seems, meet Quentin Matsys . Having secured his pension, Dürer returned home in July 1521, having caught an undetermined illness, which afflicted him for
7956-442: The proportions of men and horses, and fortification . However, one consequence of this shift in emphasis was that during the last years of his life, Dürer produced comparatively little as an artist. In painting, there was only a portrait of Hieronymus Holtzschuher , a Madonna and Child (1526) , Salvator Mundi (1526) , and two panels showing St. John with St. Peter and St. Paul with St. Mark beside him. This last great work,
8058-406: The quick proliferation of accurate perspective paintings in Florence, Brunelleschi likely understood (with help from his friend the mathematician Toscanelli ), but did not publish, the mathematics behind perspective. Decades later, his friend Leon Battista Alberti wrote De pictura ( c. 1435 ), a treatise on proper methods of showing distance in painting. Alberti's primary breakthrough
8160-425: The rest of his life, and greatly reduced his rate of work. On his return to Nuremberg, Dürer worked on a number of grand projects with religious themes, including a crucifixion scene and a sacra conversazione , though neither was completed. This may have been due in part to his declining health, but perhaps also because of the time he gave to the preparation of his theoretical works on geometry and perspective,
8262-578: The rest of his work, but revolutionised the potential of that medium, while his extraordinary handling of the burin expanded especially the tonal range of his engravings; well-known engravings include the three Meisterstiche (master prints) Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study (1514), and Melencolia I (1514). His watercolours mark him as one of the first European landscape artists , and with his confident self-portraits he pioneered them as well as autonomous subjects of art. Dürer's introduction of classical motifs and of
8364-477: The same block) by the Wolgemut workshop. Dürer may have worked on some of these, as the work on the project began while he was with Wolgemut. After completing his apprenticeship, Dürer followed the common German custom of taking Wanderjahre —in effect gap years —in which the apprentice learned skills from other masters, their local tradition and individual styles; Dürer was to spend about four years away. He left in 1490, possibly to work under Martin Schongauer ,
8466-402: The third book, Dürer gives principles by which the proportions of the figures can be modified, including the mathematical simulation of convex and concave mirrors ; here Dürer also deals with human physiognomy . The fourth book is devoted to the theory of movement. Appended to the last book, however, is a self-contained essay on aesthetics, which Dürer worked on between 1512 and 1528, and it
8568-542: The two visits he made to Italy had an enormous influence on him. He wrote that Giovanni Bellini was the oldest and still the best of the artists in Venice. His drawings and engravings show the influence of others, notably Antonio del Pollaiuolo , with his interest in the proportions of the body; Lorenzo di Credi ; and Andrea Mantegna , whose work he produced copies of while training. Dürer probably also visited Padua and Mantua on this trip. On his return to Nuremberg in 1495, Dürer opened his own workshop (being married
8670-524: The upper right holding a designation of his authorship. Besides the Flemish verism in the depiction of the greenery and the garments, and the use of his own hues, the altar-piece shows a strong Italian influence. It was later acquired by the Emperor Rudolf II and taken to Prague. Dürer returned to Nuremberg by mid-1507, remaining in Germany until 1520. His reputation had spread throughout Europe and he
8772-623: The utmost diligence for a whole year". In 1527, Dürer also published Various Lessons on the Fortification of Cities, Castles, and Localities ( Etliche Underricht zu Befestigung der Stett, Schloss und Flecken ). It was printed in Nuremberg , probably by Hieronymus Andreae and reprinted in 1603 by Johan Janssenn in Arnhem . In 1535 it was also translated into Latin as On Cities, Forts, and Castles, Designed and Strengthened by Several Manners: Presented for
8874-455: The viewer, and did not use foreshortening. The most important figures are often shown as the highest in a composition , also from hieratic motives, leading to the so-called "vertical perspective", common in the art of Ancient Egypt , where a group of "nearer" figures are shown below the larger figure or figures; simple overlapping was also employed to relate distance. Additionally, oblique foreshortening of round elements like shields and wheels
8976-592: The woodblock itself, or glued a paper drawing to the block. Either way, his drawings were destroyed during the cutting of the block. His series of sixteen designs for the Apocalypse is dated 1498, as is his engraving of St. Michael Fighting the Dragon . He made the first seven scenes of the Great Passion in the same year, and a little later, a series of eleven on the Holy Family and saints. The Seven Sorrows Polyptych , commissioned by Frederick III of Saxony in 1496,
9078-688: Was a German painter , printmaker , and theorist of the German Renaissance . Born in Nuremberg , Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints . He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael , Giovanni Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci , and from 1512 was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I . Dürer's vast body of work includes engravings , his preferred technique in his later prints, altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, watercolours and books. The woodcuts series are stylistically more Gothic than
9180-464: Was a requirement for this). Over the next five years, his style increasingly integrated Italian influences into underlying Northern forms. Arguably his best works in the first years of the workshop were his woodcut prints, mostly religious, but including secular scenes such as The Men's Bath ( c. 1496 ). These were larger and more finely cut than the great majority of German woodcuts hitherto, and far more complex and balanced in composition. It
9282-457: Was also the first to accurately draw the Platonic solids as they would appear in perspective. Luca Pacioli 's 1509 Divina proportione ( Divine Proportion ), illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci , summarizes the use of perspective in painting, including much of Della Francesca's treatise. Leonardo applied one-point perspective as well as shallow focus to some of his works. Two-point perspective
9384-459: Was concerned he was losing "my sight and freedom of hand" (perhaps caused by arthritis) and increasingly affected by the writings of Martin Luther . In July 1520 Dürer made his fourth and last major journey, to renew the Imperial pension Maximilian had given him and to secure the patronage of the new emperor, Charles V , who was to be crowned at Aachen . Dürer journeyed with his wife and her maid via
9486-455: Was demonstrated as early as 1525 by Albrecht Dürer , who studied perspective by reading Piero and Pacioli's works, in his Unterweisung der Messung ("Instruction of the Measurement"). Perspective images are created with reference to a particular center of vision for the picture plane. In order for the resulting image to appear identical to the original scene, a viewer must view the image from
9588-453: Was executed by Dürer and his assistants c. 1500. In 1502, Dürer's father died. Around 1503–1505 Dürer produced the first 17 of a set illustrating the Life of the Virgin , which he did not finish for some years. Neither these nor the Great Passion were published as sets until several years later, but prints were sold individually in considerable numbers. During the same period Dürer perfected
9690-453: Was not common at that time (later, Dürer commented that in Germany, as a non-noble, he was treated as a parasite). Pirckheimer (who he met in 1495, before entering the service of Maximilian) was also an important personage in the court and great cultural patron, who had a strong influence on Dürer as his tutor in classical knowledge and humanistic critical methodology, as well as collaborator. In Maximilian's court, Dürer also collaborated with
9792-478: Was not confined merely to the stage. Euclid in his Optics ( c. 300 BC ) argues correctly that the perceived size of an object is not related to its distance from the eye by a simple proportion. In the first-century BC frescoes of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor , multiple vanishing points are used in a systematic but not fully consistent manner. Chinese artists made use of oblique projection from
9894-423: Was not to show the mathematics in terms of conical projections, as it actually appears to the eye. Instead, he formulated the theory based on planar projections, or how the rays of light, passing from the viewer's eye to the landscape, would strike the picture plane (the painting). He was then able to calculate the apparent height of a distant object using two similar triangles. The mathematics behind similar triangles
9996-652: Was on friendly terms and in communication with many of the major artists including Raphael . Between 1507 and 1511 Dürer worked on some of his most celebrated paintings: Adam and Eve (1507), Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1508, for Frederick of Saxony), Virgin with the Iris (1508), the altarpiece Assumption of the Virgin (1509, for Jacob Heller of Frankfurt), and Adoration of the Trinity (1511, for Matthaeus Landauer). During this period he also completed two woodcut series,
10098-463: Was perspective a way of showing depth, it was also a new method of creating a composition. Visual art could now depict a single, unified scene, rather than a combination of several. Early examples include Masolino's St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Raising of Tabitha ( c. 1423 ), Donatello's The Feast of Herod ( c. 1427 ), as well as Ghiberti's Jacob and Esau and other panels from
10200-557: Was the daughter of a prominent brass worker (and amateur harpist) in the city. However, no children resulted from the marriage, and with Albrecht the Dürer name died out. The marriage between Agnes and Albrecht was believed not to be a generally happy one, as indicated by a letter of Dürer in which he quipped to Willibald Pirckheimer in a rough tone about his wife, calling her an "old crow" and made other vulgar remarks. Pirckheimer also made no secret of his antipathy towards Agnes, describing her as
10302-403: Was the first book for adults on mathematics in German, as well as being cited later by Galileo and Kepler . The other, a work on city fortifications, was published in 1527. The Four Books on Human Proportion were published posthumously, shortly after his death in 1528. Dürer died in Nuremberg at the age of 56, leaving an estate valued at 6,874 florins – a considerable sum. He is buried in
10404-456: Was the leading artist in Nuremberg at the time, with a large workshop producing a variety of works of art, in particular woodcuts for books. Nuremberg was then an important and prosperous city, a centre for publishing and many luxury trades. It had strong links with Italy , especially Venice , a relatively short distance across the Alps . Dürer's godfather Anton Koberger left goldsmithing to become
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