Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer was a German artist from Nuremberg who lived from 1471 to 1528.  Dürer was part of the German Renaissance movement; a subset of the Northern Renaissance that spread across Europe.  An artist who worked in many mediums, Dürer was also an etcher, printmaker, mathematician and theorist in addition to painter and is regarded as the most prominent artist of the Northern Renaissance.

Dürer’s father was a goldsmith, and his early training was to follow in his father’s footsteps. His precocious talent for drawing was recognized early on and at age 15, Dürer quit the goldsmith business to work as an apprentice to printmaker Michael Wolgemut where he excelled at what he learned. After getting married in 1494 to Agnes Frey, Dürer traveled to Venice, Italy, where his own artistic style became heavily inspired and influenced by prominent Italian artists, including Bellini and Pollaiuolo brothers, Antonio del Pollaiuolo and Piero del Pollaiuolo. After moving back home, he opened his own workshop at 24 years old.  

Albrecht Dürer was very successful early on in his lifetime. By his mid-twenties, he was internationally renowned.  His woodcut prints were published throughout Europe and were well-admired.  Dürer was one of the few people that was able to marry the art styles of the Northern Renaissance with that of the Italian Renaissance and because of that, between 1512 and 1519, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I became Dürer’s foremost patron.

In his later years, Albrecht Dürer suffered from arthritis in his hands. In 1521, he contracted malaria and from then until his death at just 56 years old in 1528, his artistic output was dramatically reduced. Dürer was one of the first artists to achieve fame through reproductions of his work. His art reached a large number of people through his woodcuts alone and inspired subsequent artists to use printing to help further their success. For living in the 16th century, he was quite the modern man.

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