ALBRECHT DURER, perhaps the greatest German artist of the Renaissance era,
began his career in the Imperial Free City of Nuernberg with his father, a
Hungarian goldsmith who had emigrated to Germany in 1455. Despite his
goldsmith origins, however, by 1484 Durer had already begun painting. In 1486
he was apprenticed to the painter and printmaker Michael Wolgumut and began to
work with woodcuts and copper engravings as well.
Beginning
in 1490 Durer travelled widely for study, including trips to Italy in 1494 and
1505-7 and to Antwerp and the Low Countries in 1520-1. During his visit to
Venice on his second Italian trip Durer was especially influenced by Goivanni
Bellini and Bellini's brother-in-law, Andrea Mantegna each then near the end
of his career. In The Uffizi: A Guide to the Gallery (Venice: Edizione
Storti, 1980, p. 57) Umberto Fortis comments that Durer's journeys enabled him
"to fuse the Gothic traditions of the North with the achievements in
perspective, volumetric and plastic handling of forms, and color of the
Italians in an original synthesis which was to have great influence with the
Italian Mannerists."
The
period between his Italian trips was one of great productivity and artistic
growth, characterized by his publication, 1496-8, of a portfolio of woodcuts,
The Apocalypse of St. John. Scholars have suggested that the portfolio
may have been intended as a veiled expression of support for the Reformation,
with Babylon used as a surrogate for Rome.
Beginning
at least as early as 1512, Durer became portraitist to the rich and famous of
his time, including Emperor Maximilian I, c. 1518, and Christian II of
Denmark, 1521. Other sitters included Jacob Fugger and other prominent
merchants, clergy and government officials. An early chalk and watercolor
portrait by Durer, 1494-5, appears to copy Gentile Bellini's profile painting,
now lost, of Queen Caterina Ornero (B-31) following her surrender of her
throne in Cyprus and retirement to her native Venice. Shown here are Durer's
own self-portraits at ages 22, 26 and 28 (now in the collections of the Louvre,
Prado and Alte Pinakothek of Munich).
Durer
expressed his theories on proportion in The Four Books on Human
Proportions, published posthumously in 1528.
Beginning
in 1490 Durer travelled widely for study, including trips to Italy in 1494 and
1505-7 and to Antwerp and the Low Countries in 1520-1. During his visit to
Venice on his second Italian trip Durer was especially influenced by Goivanni
Bellini and Bellini's brother-in-law, Andrea Mantegna each then near the end
of his career. In The Uffizi: A Guide to the Gallery (Venice: Edizione
Storti, 1980, p. 57) Umberto Fortis comments that Durer's journeys enabled him
"to fuse the Gothic traditions of the North with the achievements in
perspective, volumetric and plastic handling of forms, and color of the
Italians in an original synthesis which was to have great influence with the
Italian Mannerists." 
Beginning
at least as early as 1512, Durer became portraitist to the rich and famous of
his time, including Emperor Maximilian I, c. 1518, and Christian II of
Denmark, 1521. Other sitters included Jacob Fugger and other prominent
merchants, clergy and government officials. An early chalk and watercolor
portrait by Durer, 1494-5, appears to copy Gentile Bellini's profile painting,
now lost, of Queen Caterina Ornero (B-31) following her surrender of her
throne in Cyprus and retirement to her native Venice. Shown here are Durer's
own self-portraits at ages 22, 26 and 28 (now in the collections of the Louvre,
Prado and Alte Pinakothek of Munich).