Albrecht Dürer

Lore & Background

Dürer was born on 21 May 1471, the third child and second son of Albrecht Dürer the Elder, a successful goldsmith, and Barbara Holper. After a few years of school, he learned goldsmithing and drawing from his father. Showing precocious talent, he began an apprenticeship with Michael Wolgemut at age fifteen in 1486. Wolgemut's workshop produced woodcuts for books, including the Nuremberg Chronicle, on which Dürer may have worked. After his apprenticeship, Dürer took Wanderjahre from 1490, traveling possibly to Frankfurt and the Netherlands, and then to Colmar, Basel, and Strasbourg. He returned to Nuremberg and married Agnes Frey on 7 July 1494. The marriage produced no children, and letters suggest it was not generally happy.

Reader's Guide

Albrecht Dürer's significance lies in his role as a pivotal figure of the Northern Renaissance, bridging Northern European and Italian artistic traditions. His high-quality woodcut prints, such as the Apocalypse series, revolutionized the medium's potential, while his engravings expanded tonal range through extraordinary burin handling. Dürer introduced classical motifs and the nude into Northern art, influenced by his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists. His theoretical treatises on mathematics for linear perspective and body proportions reinforced his legacy. Dürer's vast body of work includes engravings, altarpieces, portraits, self-portraits, watercolours, and books. His woodcut series, though stylistically more Gothic, transformed the medium. His life is well documented due to his autobiographical writings and early fame. Dürer's influence extended through his contact with major Italian artists and patronage by Emperor Maximilian I, securing his place as a key figure in the history of art.

Did You Know?

• Dürer's godfather Anton Koberger became the most successful publisher in Germany, publishing the Nuremberg Chronicle with 1,809 woodcut illustrations.
• Dürer's first painted self-portrait (now in the Louvre) was not sent to his fiancée; the fiancée story is a later romanticized claim without solid historical evidence.
• The German name 'Dürer' is not a translation of the Hungarian 'Ajtósi' meaning 'doormaker'; 'Ajtósi' is a toponymic surname meaning 'from Ajtós', and 'doormaker' is a folk etymology.
• Dürer's drawing in silverpoint from 1484 is one of the earliest surviving children's drawings of any kind.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Albrecht Dürer (May 21 1471 – April 6 1528) was a German painter and printmaker, most famous for his series of prints, individual engravings and numerous painted self-portraits." — Albrecht Dürer "Since geometry is the right foundation of all painting, I have decided to teach its rudiments and principles to all youngsters eager for art." — Albrecht Dürer "Whoever … proves his point and demonstrates the prime truth geometrically should be believed by all the world, for there we are captured." — Albrecht Dürer "Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion (1528)." — Albrecht Dürer