ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
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21. May 1471
born in Nuremberg to Albrecht Durer, the Elder and Barbara Durer (born Holper). Nuremberg was in his times a centre of Germany – in intellectual, artistic and business sense. Silvio de Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, called Nuremberg the hub of the Empire in his book Germania, published in 1496 in Leipzig. |
APRENTICESHIP IN NUREMBERG AND FIRST JOURNEYS (1471- 1494)
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1484-1486
apprenticeship under his father in his goldsmith workshop
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1484
Self-portrait as a boy
He made this picture when he was thirteen years old and inscribed in
the upper left side: "This I drew, using a mirror; it is my own
likeness, in the year 1484, when I was still a child / Albrecht Durer."
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30. November 1486
beginning three years apprenticeship at the painter and woodcut illustrator Michael Wolgemut.
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After 11. April 1490
journey to Colmar to work under Martin Shongauer; arrived early in 1942
when Shongauer was already dead (he died on 2. 2. 1491); hypothesis –
Durer stayed at Housebook Master and then visited Holland.
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Early in 1492
arrived in Colmar – met Shongauer`s brothers, the goldsmiths Caspar and Paul and the painter Ludwig
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Late in the spring or early in the summer of 1942
arrived in Basel to the goldsmith Georg Shongauer; at this time Basel was a center for scientific and literary publications.
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8. August 1492
woodcut of Saint Jerome for title page of the Letters of St. Jerome (published
by Nicolaus Kessler) – great success; friendship with publisher Amerbach.
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1493
Self-portrait with Sea Holly –
this was the first self-portrait in European history of art produced as
independent painting; Myn sach dy gat als es oben schtat (My affairs will
go as ordained on high) is the inscription at the top of the painting; Eryngium
= Krausdistel = Sea Holly is the flower which he holds in his sands and
its German name means "curly prickle (dagger)". Its roots have
a reputation as an aphrodisiac which lead to the speculation that the painting
was a gift for his fiancée. But it is possible that the name Krausdistel
was just a synonym for Durer himself.
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Fall of 1493
went to Strassburg
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After 18. May 1494
returned home. He came into real contact with the renaissance art in Nuremberg via engravings of the northern Italians (Andrea Mantegna).
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1494 - Tarocchi woodcuts (copies of Italian prints).
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7. June 1494
married Agnes Fray, the daughter of highly respected coppersmith from Nuremberg;
the marriage was arranged by his father.
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1494 - Durer's wife Agnes
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FIRST TRIP TO ITALY (1494-1495)
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Durer's business in Nuremberg was successful, but he wanted more. He was driven to explore the fundamentals of his art, to learn to know its origins and those things which powered its growth, to gather and extend knowledge. To go south was not a tradition among northern artists. But from the beginning of 14th century there were strong commercial relations between Nuremberg and Venice, so the trip between them requires only fourteen days. |
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October 1494
trip to Venice and probably to some other places such as Padua, Mantua and
Cremona. Between the journey Durer made a lot of stops (Insbruck, Cembra
Valley…)
"His mentors might have included northern
italian masters like Andrea Mantegna, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini and Vittore
Carpaccio" (AD, p.112)
Michelangelo visited Venice in the same year. He stayed in Bologna
during the winter, where he executed three statuettes to complete the tomb
of St. Dominic and he came in touch with the relief of Jacopo della Quercia
(1374-1438) on the portal of San Petronio (1425-1438).
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Spring of 1495
returned home
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WORKSHOP IN NUREMBERG (1494-1505)
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Durer and his workshop in Nuremberg produced a great number
of paintings, woodcuts and engravings. His first commissions for paintings
came from Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony in year 1496.
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1497
two portraits of the same woman (Katarina Furlegerin???).
Both paintings are the same size and have identical coat-of arms depicted.
One of women holds the Eryngium. |
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1498
Self-portrait with Landscape; it was acquired by Charles
I of England and later bought by Philip IV of Spain.
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1498
The Revelation of St John (Apocalypse); the series of
15 woodcuts; a great success in Germany (The Revelation of St John: 4. The
Four Riders of the Apocalypse, 1497-98, Woodcut, 399 x 286 mm, Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe)
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1500
Self-portrait in a Fur-Trimmed Coat; he depicted himself
in a role of Christ as vera icon. "Contributing to this overall effect
is the underlaying construction of a circle and a triangle, which accounts
fot the severe symmetry of Durer face. This construction can be traced back
to the bizantyne images of the Redeemer."(AD, p 23)
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1503
Salvator Mundi (unfinished) – revealed the influence of
Barbari and possibly Leonardo.
Up until this time Leonardesque motifs had come to Durer through the intermediary
of minor artists such as Lorenzo di Credi. In this year he must have gained
access to Leonardo’s inventions either in the original or at least
in direct copies. He was acquainted with Jacopo de’ Barbari who
lived in Nuremberg from 1500-1503.
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1504
Fall of Man***
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1505
Memento Mei, charcoal drawing
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SECOND TRIP TO ITALY (1505-1507)
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Summer or fall of 1505
second trip to Italy; Augsburg; Florence (latest months of 1505) ???; Padua;
Venice (old Giovanni Bellini); Bologna. He was well known in Venice so he
appears on the fresco The Miracle of Joseph’s Sprouting Rod (which
is a part of series of frescoes depicting the life of the Virgin in the
Scuola del Carmine in Padua) made by Giulio Campagnola around 1505.
In the summer of 1506 he intended to travel in Rome on the coronation of
King Maximilian, but there is no later evidence of the journey.
Toward the end of his stay in Italy he visited Bologna, as he wrote to his
friend Willibald Pirckheimer, "for art's sake, for there is
one there who will instruct me in the secret art of perspective".
Art historians assumed that the theacher was mathematician Luca Pacioli,
friend of Leonardo da Vinci.
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1506
The Feast of the Rose Garlands; portrait
of Albrecht Durer and unknown companion in the background
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1506
Christ among the Doctors; "…
the ultimate source of this inspiration was Leonardo da Vinci … As
the Christ among the Doctors was widely imitated in North Italy (for example
in Giorgone) because it was 'Leonardesque' without repeating
a composition by Leonardo, so the St. Jerome in Meditation appealed
to the Flemings because it used the language of Antwerp to deliver a message
by Durer." (Panofsky, p 213)
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February 1507
returned home
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WORKING IN NUREMBERG WITH SOME OCCASIONAL TRIPS
(1507-1521)
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After retourning from Italy he studied languages and mathematics and made the
first draft on treatise on the theory of art; In this period he produce
his most known engravings (Meister stiche). He made some occasional trips
– possibly Frankfurt in 1508, Bamberg in 1517, Augsburg in 1518.
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1507 – 1508
Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand; self-portrait with the portrait
of Conrad Celtes who died in the same year.
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1509
He purchased the house at Tiergartnertur (Tiergartner gate) from the estate
of the astronomer Bernhard Walther.
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1512
employed by the Emperor Maximilian I – "Last Knight";
began to write The Treatise on Painting which will develop into Vier
Bucher von Menschlicher Proportion and Underweysung der Messung mit dem
Zirckel und Richtscheyt and were largely completed by 1523.
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1512/13
beginning of Ilustrations of Pirkheimer's translation of Horus
Apollo: In 1419 Horus Apollo's treatise (2. or 4. century
AD) became known in Italy and made a lot of impressions (Hypnerotomachia
Polyiphili, Mantegna, Bellini, Leonardo da Vinci…)
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1513
Knight, Death and Devil: dog as a symbol of a sacred letters (151); in Horus
Apollo's translation is a symbol of The Sacred Scribe (39 H).***
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1514
St. Jerome - game with perspective
(shortness of the distance, lowness of the horizont and position of the
vanishing point)***
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1514
Melencolia I; The position of the main
figure resembles Michelangelo's Pensieroso – portrait of Lorenzo
de Medici (Duke of Urbino, 1492-1519) made for his tomb in the Medici Chappel
in San Lorenzo, Florence. (Pope Leo X commissioned Michelangelo
in 1519, il pensieroso was made cca. 1525)***
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1514
beginning of woodcut Triumphal Arch for Maximilian I; "Johannes
Stabius, the Emperor's astronomer, poet and historiographer, devised
the programme and wrote the explanations, Jorg Kolderer, an architect of
Innsbruck provided the design of the architectural framework, the firm of
Hieronymus Andreae, called Formschneyder, took care of cutting and Durer,
employing the members of his workshop and assisted by Pirckheimer in iconographical
matters, acted as designer-in-chief. Durer himself created only one chart
which represents the marriage of Maximilian I to Mary of Burgundy, dauther
of Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy.
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12. January 1519
death of Maximilian I
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In the first half of 1519 brief excursion in Switzerland with Pirckheimer
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12. June 1520
beginning of one year journey into the Nederlands to met Maximilian's
grandson, Charles V and got the confirmation of pension from him. The pension
was confirmed on November 12 in Cologne. On his way to Cologne he spent
some time in Antwerp, Brusseles and Malines, on his way back he stopped
again in Antwerp, where he remained with some interruptions until 2. June
1521. He returned to Nuremberg by way of Brusseles and Cologne. In Brusseles
(in 1520) he visited Erasmus von Rotterdam and drawn him. He was one of
few who recognized Durer true genius and called "special attention
to his graphic representations which he praised above those of painters
of antiquity." In a dialogue about the proper way to speak Latin and
Greek, which appeared in 1528 he praised Durer theoretical work. (AD, pp.
46-47)
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March 1521
St. Jerome in Meditation (Lisbon); Saint with a skull;
the painting influenced a lot of Dutch and Flemish painters;
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ca. 1521
St. Jerome (pen drawing in Berlin); "Instead of being engaged
in scholarly work, the Saint is lost in meditation over the skull now
placed on the table before him, his mood and posture strangely reminiscent
of Michelangelo's most famous monuments to universal grief, the
Jeremiah and the Penseroso." (Panofsky, p 213)
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July 1521
returned home
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LAST YEARS (1521-1528)
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***
Our research suggests that Durer executed his
four Meister stiche in last period of his life although his datings disagree with the idea. These four engravings
are unique in Durer’s opus, there is no one else – except
this four – engraved in such accurate and unusual manner:
Fall of a man / Knight, Death and Devil / St. Jerome / Melencolia I.
Read more about this theory
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1523
Four Books on Human Proportion were largely completed
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1525
Manual of Measurement was published.
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1525/26
Four Apostoles
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1526
Erasmus Rotterdamus
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1528
Book I of Human Proportion was published.
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6. April 1528
died in Nuremberg; Pirckheimer's epitaph on Durer's tomb: Quicquid
Alberti Dureri mortale fuit, sub hoc conditur tumulo.
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31. October 1528
in accordance of Durer’s wish Pirckheimer published the rest three
books of the Four Books of Human Proportion. |
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