The Life of Albrecht Dürer Born on May 21, 1471 in Nuremberg, Germany and died April 26, His main fields of work were Painting and Woodcuts/Engravings, although it appears he drew many of his works beforehand as a template.

Dürer came from a Hungarian family of goldsmiths, his father having settled in Nuremberg in Initially, his family’s surname was “Thürer”, which means doormaker. A door is featured in the coat-of-arms the family acquired, which can be seen in Albrecht’s own woodcut of his coat-of-arms. Albrecht Dürer later changed “Türer”, his father’s dictation of the family’s surname, to “Dürer” in order to adapt to the local Nuremburg dialect.

Dürer learned the basics of goldsmithing and drawing from his father Albrecht Dürer the Elder, who was a successful goldsmith. Although his father wanted him to continue his training as a goldsmith, Dürer showed such a talent in drawing, that at age 15 in 1486, he started as an apprentice to Michael Wolgemut. Wolgemut was also the leading artist in Nuremberg at the time. In this self-portrait of himself at age 13, he already shows skill in shading, texturing and draws the loose curves in his robe well.

In 1490 after completing his apprenticeship, he followed the common German custom of Wanderjahre, in which he would travel and learn skills from artists in other areas. Dürer spent about 4 years away at this time. During his travel, he created his first painted Self Portrait, assumed to have been sent back to his fiancée in Nuremburg. He returned home on July 7, 1494 and was married to Agnes Frey. No children resulted from their marriage.

3 months after returning home in 1494, Dürer left for Italy alone. During his travel over the Alps, he created watercolor sketches. Some of those sketches can be deduced from landscapes of places in his later work; for example, his engraving Nemesis. Dürer visited Venice to study its more advanced artistic world, of which had an enormous influence on him.

In 1495, Dürer opened his own workshop in Nuremburg. Over the next 5 years, his work mixed Italian influence with his more innate Northern forms. His best works at this time were his woodcut prints. “Dürer seemed to have united a large measure of self-esteem with a deep sense of human unfulfillment. There is an undercurrent of exigency in all he does, as if work was a surrogate for happiness.” –Quoted by Nicolas Pioch

During this time, his landscape works became much different from his earlier work. There was a bigger emphasis on the atmosphere rather than the features of the paintings.

In 1498, Dürer published a famous series of 15 woodcuts named Apocalypse, which were based off scenes from the Book of Revelations. The most famous of the series was The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The series brought Dürer wealth and fame across Europe. These cuts show incredible detail and design and likely took a while to create.

In , Dürer created some of his most celebrated paintings. He also completed two woodcut series as well as a second addition of the Apocalypse series. From 1512, Maximilian I became Dürer’s major patron. Dürer made a couple of works including several portraits of the emperor, one of which was made shortly before Maximilian’s death in 1519.

Dürer seemed very sympathetic of Dr. Martin Luther’s ideas, as he seemed to help Dürer overcome many difficulties. Dürer appeared to have religious influence in lots of his works, including his last great work, The Four Apostles. Dürer died in Nuremberg at the age of 56, leaving an estate valued at 6,874 florins, which in this day is now a museum.

Works Cited