Self-Portrait, 1493, Oil on Canvas

Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 - April 6, 1528) was a German painter, wood carver, engraver, and mathematician. He is best known for his woodcuts in series, including the Apocalypse (1498), two series on the crucifixion of Christ, the Great Passion (1498-1510) and the Little Passion (1510-11) as well as many of his individual prints, such as Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513) and Melancholia I (1514). Download high resolution version (580x739, 35 KB)Albrech Dürer, Selbstportät mit Blume, 1493 Self-Portrait with flowers, Oil on canvas, 57 x 45 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. ... Download high resolution version (580x739, 35 KB)Albrech Dürer, Selbstportät mit Blume, 1493 Self-Portrait with flowers, Oil on canvas, 57 x 45 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. ... May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... This article is about the year 1471, not the BT caller ID service accessible by dialling 1-4-7-1. ... April 6 is the 96th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (97th in leap years). ... Events June 19 - Battle of Landriano - A French army in Italy under Marshal St. ... For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter. ... Artists can use woodworking to create delicate sculptures. ... Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. ... A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics. ... A woodcut is a method of printing in which an image is carved into the surface of a piece of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with chisels. ... The term apocalypse was introduced by F. Lücke (1832) as a description of the New Testament book of Revelation. ... Events Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama visits Quelimane and Moçambique in southeastern Africa. ... Events Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama visits Quelimane and Moçambique in southeastern Africa. ... Events Conquest of Pskov by Grand Prince Vasili III of Muscovy. ... Events Conquest of Pskov by Grand Prince Vasili III of Muscovy. ... Events Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés conquer Cuba; Velázquez appointed Governor. ... Albrecht Dürers engraving Melancholia I (originally known by Dürer as Melencolia I) is notable for being an allegorical depiction of the main symptoms of Melancholy, now better known as depression. ...

Early life in Nuremberg

Dürer was born in Nuremberg. His family came from Hungary, germanizing the family name of Thürer when they settled in Nuremberg soon after the middle of the 15th century. His father, also called Albrecht, was a goldsmith and served as assistant to Hieronymus Helfer, and in 1468 married his daughter Barbara. They had eighteen children, of whom Albrecht was the second. Albrecht's brother, Hans Dürer, also became a renowned artist. Nuremberg coat of arms Location of Nuremberg Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg) is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... Categories: Stub | Jewellery | Smiths ... Events Births Charles I of Savoy February 29 - Pope Paul III Juan del Encina, Spanish poet, dramatist and composer Deaths February 3 - Johannes Gutenberg, publisher Gjergj Kastriot Skanderbeg, Albanias national hero Gennadius II, Patriarch of Constantinople Joanot Martorell, author of Tirant lo Blanc Categories: 1468 ... Hans Dürer was born and died in Nuremberg. ...

At the age of fifteen Dürer was apprenticed to the principal painter of the town, Michael Wolgemut, a prolific if undistinguished producer of small works in the late Gothic style. Dürer learned not only painting but also wood carving and elementary copper engraving under Wolgemut. At the end of his apprenticeship in 1490 he travelled (the so-called Wanderjahre). In 1492 he arrived in Colmar, intending to study under Martin Schöngauer, a well regarded painter-engraver of his time. He found that Schongauer had died the previous year, but he was received kindly by the family of the deceased master there and in Basel. Under them he evidently had some practice both in metal-engraving and in furnishing designs for the woodcutter. He left Basel some time in 1494 and travelled briefly in the Low Countries before he returned to Nuremberg. From this period, little of the work that can be attributed to him with certainty survives, though several of the illustrations of the Nuremberg Chronicle are sometimes attributed to him. If youre looking for the TV show, see The Apprentice. ... Gothic art refers to the art of the Gothic cultural movement in northern Europe. ... Events Tirant Lo Blanc by Joanot Martorell, Martí Joan De Galba is published. ... Events January 2 - Boabdil, the last Moorish King of Granada, surrenders his city to the army of Ferdinand and Isabella after a lengthy siege. ... This article is about the city in Alsace. ... c. ... Basel (English traditionally: Basle [ba:l], German: Basel [ba:z@l], French Bâle [ba:l], Italian Basilea [bazilE:a]) is Switzerlands third most populous city (188,000 inhabitants in the canton of Basel-City as of 2004; the 690,000 inhabitants in the conurbation stretching across the immediate... Events January 25 - Alfonso II becomes King of Naples. ... The Low Countries are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine and Meuse rivers— usually used in modern context to mean the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg (an alternate modern term, more often used today, is Benelux). ... Depiction of the Venerable Bede The Nuremberg Chronicle is one of the best documented early printed books. ...

First visit to Italy

On July 9, 1494 Dürer was married, according to an arrangement made during his absence, to Agnes Frey, the daughter of a local merchant. His relationship with his wife is unclear and her reputation has suffered from a posthumous assault by Dürer's friends. He did not remain in Nuremberg long; in the autumn of 1494 he travelled to Italy, leaving his wife at Nuremberg. He went to Venice, evidence of his travels being derived from drawings and engravings that are closely linked to existing northern Italian works by Mantegna, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Lorenzo di Credi and others. Some time in 1495 Dürer must have returned to Nuremberg, where he seems to have lived and worked for possibly the next ten years, producing most of his notable prints. Events January 25 - Alfonso II becomes King of Naples. ... A preordained wife to Albrecht Durer, married on July 9, 1495 ... Location within Italy Venice is known for its waterways and gondolas Venice (Italian Venezia), the city of canals, is the capital of the region of Veneto, population 271,663 (census estimate 2004-01-01). ... The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. ... Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo (c. ... Lorenzo di Credi (1459-1537) was a Florentine painter and sculptor. ... Events February 22 - King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the citys throne. ...

Melancholia, 1514, Engraving

Duerers Melancholia I The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Duerers Melancholia I The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ...

Return to Nuremberg

During the first few years from 1495 onwards he worked in the established Germanic and northern forms but was open to the influences of the Renaissance. His best works in this period were for wood-block printing, typical scenes of popular devotion developed into his famous series of sixteen great designs for the Apocalypse, first carved in 1498. Counterpointed with the first seven of scenes of the Great Passion in the same year, and a little later a series of eleven on the Holy Family and of saints. Around 1504-1505 he carved the first seventeen of a set illustrating the life of the Virgin. Neither these nor the Great Passion were published till several years later. By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance -French Renaissance -German Renaissance -English Renaissance The Renaissance was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ... Events Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama visits Quelimane and Moçambique in southeastern Africa. ... Events January 1 - French troops surrender Gaeta to the Spanish under Cordoba. ... Events March 5 - Papal dispensation issued for the marriage of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon June 27 - Henry VIII of England repudiates his engagement to Catherine of Aragon, at his fathers command King Alexander_of_Poland signed Nihil_novi act - Poland became Nobles Democracy Poland prohibits peasants from leaving...

Dürer trained himself in the more finely detailed and expensive copper-engraving. He attempted no subjects of the scale of his woodcuts, but produced a number of Madonnas, single figures from scripture or of the saints, some nude mythologies, and groups, sometimes satirical, of ordinary people. The Venetian artist Jacopo de Barbari, whom Dürer had met in Venice, came to Nuremberg for a while in 1500. He influenced Dürer with the new developments in perspective, anatomy and proportion, from which Dürer began his own studies. A series of extant drawings show Dürer's experiments in human proportion, up to the famous engraving of Adam and Eve (1504) which showed his firm and detailed grasp of landscape had extended into the quality of flesh surfaces by the subtlest use of the graving-tool known to him. Two or three other technical masterpieces were produced up to 1505, when he made a second visit to Italy. Madonna is Italian for My lady. Its historical usage refers to the Mary, the mother of Jesus. ... Events Europes population was ~60 million. ... The Groom Bewitched, woodcut, c. ... Anatomical drawing of the human muscles from the Encyclopédie. ... Categories: Pages needing attention | Stub ... God creates Adam, by Michelangelo. ... Events March 5 - Papal dispensation issued for the marriage of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon June 27 - Henry VIII of England repudiates his engagement to Catherine of Aragon, at his fathers command King Alexander_of_Poland signed Nihil_novi act - Poland became Nobles Democracy Poland prohibits peasants from leaving...

Second visit to Italy

In Italy he turned his hand to painting, at first producing a series of works by tempera-painting on linen, including portraits and altarpieces, notably the Paumgartner altarpiece and the Adoration of the Magi. In early 1506 he returned to Venice, and stayed there until the spring of 1507. The occasion of this journey has been erroneously stated by Vasari. Dürer's engravings had by this time attained great popularity and had begun to be copied. In Venice he was given a valuable commission from the emigrant German community for the church of St. Bartholomew. The picture painted by Dürer was closer to the Italian style - the Adoration of the Virgin, also known as the Feast of Rose Garlands; it was subsequently acquired by the Emperor Rudolf II and taken to Prague. Other paintings Dürer produced in Venice include The Virgin and Child with the Goldfinch, a Christ disputing with the Doctors (apparently produced in a mere five days) and a number of smaller works. A fourteenth century tempera by Bernardo Daddi Not to be confused with tempura, a type of Japanese food. ... Torn linen cloth, recovered from the Dead Sea Linen is a material made from the fibers of the flax plant. ... An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. ... The Adoration of the Magi is the name traditionally given to a Christian religious scene in which the three Magi, almost always represented as kings, having found Jesus by following a star, lay before him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh: in the church calendar, this event is commemorated as... Events Leonardo da Vinci completes the Mona Lisa. ... Events The western continent is named America on the maps of Martin Waldseemüller. ... Giorgio Vasari (Arezzo, Tuscany July 3, 1511 - Florence, June 27, 1574) was an Italian painter and architect, mainly known for his famous biographies of Italian artists. ... Michelangelos The Last Judgement shows Saint Bartholomew holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin. ... Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II Rudolf II Habsburg was an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, king of Bohemia, and king of Hungary. ... Prague (Praha in Czech) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ...

A Young Hare, 1502, Watercolor

A Young Hare, watercolor, 1502, by Albrecht Dürer. ... A Young Hare, watercolor, 1502, by Albrecht Dürer. ...

Nuremberg and the masterworks

Adam and Eve, 1507, Oil on Panel

Despite the regard in which he was held by the Venetians, Dürer was back in Nuremberg by mid-1507. He remained in Germany until 1520. His reputation spread all over Europe. He was on terms of friendship or friendly communication with all the masters of the age, and Raphael held himself honored in exchanging drawings with Dürer. Download high resolution version (552x700, 58 KB)Adam and Eve by Albrecht Durer (1507) given by Christina of Sweden to King Philip IV in 1654. ... Download high resolution version (552x700, 58 KB)Adam and Eve by Albrecht Durer (1507) given by Christina of Sweden to King Philip IV in 1654. ... Events The western continent is named America on the maps of Martin Waldseemüller. ... Events January 18 - King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Asunde. ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... self-portrait Raphael or Raffaello, a painter and architect of the Florentine school in the Italian High Renaissance, was born on April 6, 1483 and died on his 37th birthday, April 6, 1520 (see the note below about earlier confusion about these dates). ...

The years between his return from Venice and his journey to the Netherlands are commonly divided according to the type of work with which he was principally occupied. The first five years, 1507-1511, are pre-eminently the painting years of his life. In them, working with a vast number of preliminary drawings and studies, he produced what have been accounted his four best works in painting - Adam and Eve (1507), Virgin with the Iris (1508), the altarpiece the Assumption of the Virgin (1509), and the Adoration of the Trinity by all the Saints (1511). During this period he also completed the two woodcut series of the Great Passion and the Life of the Virgin, both published in 1511 together with a second edition of the Apocalypse series. Events The western continent is named America on the maps of Martin Waldseemüller. ... Events Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés conquer Cuba; Velázquez appointed Governor. ... Events The western continent is named America on the maps of Martin Waldseemüller. ... Events February - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor attacks Venice June 6 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three year truce and cede several territories to Venice December 10 - League of Cambrai formed as an alliance against Venice between... Events February 2 - Battle of Diu took place near Diu, India. ... Events Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés conquer Cuba; Velázquez appointed Governor. ... Events Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés conquer Cuba; Velázquez appointed Governor. ...

From 1511 to 1514, Dürer concentrated on engraving, both on wood and copper, but especially the latter. The major work he produced in this period was the thirty-seven subjects of the Little Passion on wood, published first in 1511, and a set of fifteen small copper-engravings on the same theme in 1512. In 1513 and 1514 appeared the three most famous of Dürer's works in copper-engraving, The Knight and Death (or simply The Knight, as he called it, 1513), Melancolia and St Jerome in his Study (both 1514). Events Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés conquer Cuba; Velázquez appointed Governor. ... Events March - Louis XII of France makes peace with Emperor Maximilian. ... This article describes the wood that comprises trees and boards. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11 , 4, d Density, Hardness 8920 kg/m3, 3. ... Events Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés conquer Cuba; Velázquez appointed Governor. ... Events April 11 - Battle of Ravenna. ... Events January 20 - Christian II becomes King of Denmark and Norway. ... Events March - Louis XII of France makes peace with Emperor Maximilian. ... Events January 20 - Christian II becomes King of Denmark and Norway. ...

In the years leading to 1520 he produced a wide range of works. Tempera on linen portraits in 1516. Engravings on many subjects, experiments in etching on plates of iron and zinc. A part of the Triumphal Gate and the Triumphal March for the Emperor Maximilian. He also did the marginal decorations for the Emperor's prayer-book and a portrait-drawing of the Emperor shortly before his death in 1519. Events March - With the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, his grandson Charles of Ghent becomes King of Spain as Carlos I. July - Selim I of the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Mameluks and invades Syria. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metal Group, Period, Block 8 (VIIIB), 4, d Density, Hardness 7874 kg/m3, 4. ... General Name, Symbol, Number zinc, Zn, 30 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 12, 4, d Density, Hardness 7140 kg/m3, 2. ... Emperor Maximilian I Maximilian I of Habsburg (March 22, 1459 - January 12, 1519) was Holy Roman Emperor Life and reign in the Habsburg hereditary lands Maximilian was born in Vienna as the son of the Emperor Frederick III and Eleanore of Portugal. ... Events March 4 - Hernán Cortés lands in Mexico. ...

Journey to the Netherlands and beyond

In the summer of 1520 the desire of Dürer to secure new patronage following the death of Maximilian and an outbreak of sickness in Nuremberg, gave occasion to his fourth and last journey. Together with his wife and her maid he set out in July for the Netherlands in order to be present at the coronation of the new Emperor Charles V. He journeyed by the Rhine, Cologne, and then to Antwerp, where he was well received and produced numerous drawings in silverpoint, chalk or charcoal. Besides going to Aachen for the coronation, he made excursions to Cologne, Nijmwegen, 's-Hertogenbosch, Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Zeeland. He finally returned home in July 1521, having caught an undetermined illness which afflicted him for the rest of his life. Generally, patronage is the act of supporting or favoring some person, group, or institution. ... Charles V Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles V (Spanish: Carlos V) (24 February 1500–21 September 1558) was effectively (the first) King of Spain from 1516 to 1556 (in principle, he was from 1516 king of Aragon and from 1516 guardian of his insane mother, queen of... The Rhine canyon (Ruinaulta) in Graubünden in Switzerland Length 1,320 km Elevation of the source Vorderrhein: approx. ... Map of Germany showing Cologne Cologne skyline at night. ... The Cathedral of our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp)in the Handschoenmarkt, in the old part of Antwerp is the largest cathedral in the Low Countries and is home to a number of triptychs by the Belgian painter, Rubens. ... Silverpoint predates the use of graphite as a drawing medium and was used by Leonardo da Vinci in his notebooks. ... The Needles, part of the extensive Southern England Chalk Formation Chalk is a soft, white, porous form of limestone composed of the mineral calcium carbonate. ... Charcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents of animal and vegetable substances. ... Map of Germany showing Aachen Aachen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the border with Belgium and the Netherlands, 65 km to the west of Cologne, and the westernmost city in Germany, at 50°46 N, 6°6 E. Population: 256,605 (2003). ... The coronation of Empress Farah, of Iran, 1968. ... Nijmegen (obsolete spellings: Nijmwegen, Nymegen, Nieumeghen — known in German as Nimwegen, French as Nimègue, and Spanish as Nimega) is a municipality and a city in the east of the Netherlands, near the German border. ... s-Hertogenbosch (literally Dukes Woods in Dutch; translated in French as Bois-le-Duc), unofficially also called Den Bosch, is a municipality in the Netherlands, the capital of the province of North Brabant. ... Emblem of the Brussels-Capital Region Flag of The City of Brussels Brussels (Dutch: Brussel, French: Bruxelles, German: Brüssel) is the capital of Belgium and is considered by many to be the de facto capital of the European Union, as two of its three main institutions have their headquarters... Sometimes referred to as the Venice of the North, Bruges has many waterways that run through the city. ... This page is about the Belgian city. ... For the U.S. towns of the same name see Zeeland, Michigan and Zeeland, North Dakota respectively. ... Events January 3 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther. ...

Final years in Nuremberg

The title page of Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion (Four Books of Human Proportion, 1528)

Back in Nuremberg Dürer began work on a series of religious pictures. Many preliminary sketches and studies survive, but no paintings on the grand scale were ever carried out. This was due in part to his declining health, but more because of the time he gave to the preparation of his theoretical works on geometry and perspective, proportion and fortification. Though having little natural gift for writing, he worked hard to produce his works. Image:AlbrechtDürer01. ... Image:AlbrechtDürer01. ... Geometry (from the Greek words Ge = earth and metro = measure) is the branch of mathematics first introduced by Theaetetus dealing with spatial relationships. ... Fortifications (Latin fortis, strong, and facere, to make) are military constructions designed for defensive warfare. ...

The consequence of this shift in emphasis was that in the last years of his life Dürer produced, as an artist, comparatively little. In painting there was a portrait of Hieronymus Holtzschuher, a Madonna and Child (1526) and two panels showing St. John with St. Peter in front and St. Paul with St. Mark in the background. In copper-engraving Dürer's produced only a number of portraits, those of the cardinal-elector of Mainz (The Great Cardinal), Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, and his friends the humanist scholar Willibald Pirckheimer, Philipp Melanchthon and Erasmus of Rotterdam. This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside-down, as shown in this painting by Caravaggio. ... Saint Paul, or Paul of Tarsus, is a Christian saint, who has lent his name to a number of places and things: Buildings and institutions Churches St Pauls Cathedral in London, England, designed by Christopher Wren St Pauls Cathedral (Macau) in Macau St Pauls Cathedral, Melbourne in... Mark the Evangelist (1st century) is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark, drawing much of his material from Peter. ... Friedrich III (January 17, 1463 — May 5, 1525), also known as Frederick the Wise, was Elector of Saxony (from the House of Wettin) from 1486 to his death. ... Humanism is a system of thought that defines a socio-political doctrine (-ism) whose bounds exceed those of locally developed cultures, to include all of humanity and all issues common to human beings. ... Melancthon, in a portrait engraved by Albrecht Dürer, 1526 Philipp Melanchthon (February 16, 1497 - April 19, 1560) was a German theologian and writer of the Protestant Reformation and an associate of Martin Luther. ... This article deals with the Erasmus, the theologian. ...

Of his books, Dürer succeeded in getting two finished and produced during his lifetime. One on geometry and perspective, which was published at Nuremberg in 1525, and one on fortification, published in 1527. His work on human proportion was brought out shortly after his death in 1528 at the age of 56. Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ... Events January 5 - Felix Manz, co-founder of the Swiss Anabaptists, was drowned in the Limmat River in Zürich by the Zürich Reformed state church. ... Events June 19 - Battle of Landriano - A French army in Italy under Marshal St. ...

See also

• Early Renaissance painting

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External links

• http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/durer/
• http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Durer.html
• http://www.artchive.com/artchive/D/durer.html
• Alternative Albrecht Durer (http://www.aiwaz.net/durer/)
• Albrecht Durer at Olga's Gallery (http://www.abcgallery.com/D/durer/durer.html)