Favorite artist of the emperor of Rome, unhappy husband and other facts about the great master of the Renaissance Durer

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Painter, printmaker, watercolourist, writer, mathematician: Dürer was a multifaceted genius who, through perseverance and innovation, established himself as one of the most important masters of the High Renaissance. Is it true that Dürer painted the first colored landscape? How did he manage to create copyright? Below is a list of the most interesting facts from the biography of Dürer.

1. Dürer reached his first success at the age of 13

Albrecht Dürer was born in the German city of Nuremberg in May 1471 and was one of 18 children of Albrecht and Barbara Dürer (only three of the children survived to adulthood). His father, after whom he was named, was a successful Hungarian goldsmith. Young Albrecht studied with him, later becoming an artist. Albrecht's talent was noticeable from early childhood. The magnificent craftsmanship reflects Dürer's first significant work, which he wrote at the age of 13! The self-portrait of 1484, in which he is depicted with wide eyes and plump cheeks, is the earliest self-portrait of a European master that has survived to this day.

2. Much of what is known about Albrecht Durer was preserved thanks to him

Thanks to his numerous notes, journals and publications, there is much more information about Dürer's life than most Renaissance artists. This is especially true for people from northern countries. In his writings, you can find details about the cost of work, the clientele and ideas about various techniques, styles and methods. In addition to these written notes, Dürer left behind another invaluable autobiographical work: his self-portraits. Dürer is considered the first to create a self-portrait in the modern sense of the word. At them, Dürer looks directly at the viewer, forming a direct connection and building relationships with the audience. Due to the fame he achieved during his lifetime, Dürer is also one of the most well-documented Renaissance painters.

3. Born into a talented family and one of the best cities in Europe

Located in the center of the Holy Roman Empire and Europe, Nuremberg was an economically and productively profitable center. Silver and copper from neighboring Saxony and Bohemia have been turned into luxury goods and utilitarian goods by many city metalworkers. The city was also the cradle of humanistic thought - home to such talents as Willibald Pirkheimer, Konrad Seltis and Philip Melanchthon. As the pioneers of printing and printing (which helped spread the message of the Reformation quickly), Martin Luther called them "the eyes and ears of Germany."

In addition, Dürer came from a family of successful and talented craftsmen: his maternal grandfather and his father worked as jewelers in Nuremberg. At least two of his brothers were trained in their father's workshop. One eventually took over the family business. His godfather, Anton Koberger, was also a jeweler, but left his business and eventually became the most successful publisher in Germany.

Albrecht showed his artistic talents from a young age, creating a wonderful drawing of a little boy with the inscription “When I was a child” (the first of his self-portraits). Having received a general education from his father, he also learned the basics of metal work and design from him. These skills helped him to enter the workshop of Michael Wolgemut. Wolgemuth was an outstanding painter and printmaker known for his woodcuts. Thus, Dürer found himself at the center of Germany's thriving artistic community.

4. He was not a happy husband

Dürer's personal life is not as well known as his career. But existing evidence proves that he was not the happiest person. The artist's father arranged his marriage on July 7, 1494 to give his son a more prestigious social status. By the way, the bride, Agnes Frey, was the daughter of the famous German founder and harper Hans Frey. Agnes appears in several of Dürer's works. It is difficult to say from her portraits exactly how the artist treated his wife. But sources indicate that the pair didn't get along very well. Moreover, barely getting married, Durer left Agnes and went to Italy. She also did not accompany him on the second trip. Remaining in Nuremberg, she was responsible for selling his prints at fairs. But in 1512 she already went with him to Holland, but Durer often wrote that they did not even dine together and that he hated her friends. By the way, they never had children.

5. Durer - the founder of the Renaissance in Northern Europe

Dürer traveled throughout his life, regularly seeking inspiration and clients abroad. His first major trip took place in 1490 (he visited Frankfurt and Basel and other places). After a short return to Nuremberg for marriage, another trip followed - this time across the Alps to Venice. It was there that he was fascinated by the works of Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini (he was especially inspired by the sculpted nudes of the first and Madonna of the second). In the decades that followed, Dürer gained considerable fame in Italy, where even the art historian Giorgio Vasari, who was particularly dismissive of non-Italian artists, praised his "beautiful fantasies and inventions."

6. Durer - the greatest engraver of all times and peoples

He was an excellent painter and even more excellent engraver - perhaps the greatest that ever existed. Portraits, altarpieces and personal religious images predominate in Dürer's paintings. During his voyage across the Alps from Venice, he also painted a series of topographic watercolors that some believe were the first purely landscape studies in art history.

7. He was the creator of the first colored landscape

During his long travels, Dürer managed to achieve innovations in his work. In the fall of 1494, he left for northern Italy, stopped in Venice and drove through Bologna, Padua and Mantua. On the way back in the spring of 1495, he stopped in the Alps, where he created a series of watercolor landscapes. It was at this time that Dürer created the first landscape painted in a color corresponding to the existing place.

8. Durer - owner of one of the most famous signatures in art and creator of copyright

Perhaps Dürer was well aware that in 500 years the whole world would be interested in his biography and works. That is why he kept diaries and signed his works. He began to do the latter already in the mid-1490s. Dürer's signature was the initials. Indeed, the AD monogram became so respected and valuable that artists constantly sought to forge it by copying his work. Dürer even sued one of them, Marcantonio Raimondi of Bologna, which triggered the first copyright infringement lawsuit in art history.

9. He was the favorite artist of the Holy Roman Emperor

The success of Dürer's prints and paintings prompted the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I to seek him out. Since 1512, Dürer regularly received orders from the emperor, who became his most profitable patron. Many of the works of art commissioned by Maximilian were created as propaganda to glorify his achievements as a leader. Such work was the "Arc de Triomphe" and the famous portrait of the emperor.

10. Many mysteries are connected with the death of Dürer

Dürer contracted an alleged malaria during a trip to the Netherlands in 1521. Since then, bouts of fever have become as regular a part of his life as consulting a doctor. He died at the age of 56 in 1528. His friend Pirkheimer wrote a funeral epitaph for him: "What was fatal for Albrecht Durer lies under this mound." There is a legend that friends secretly exhumed his body a few days after burial in order to make plaster casts of his face and hands. A lock of hair was also cut off from his head and sent as a saint's relic to Strasbourg to his best disciple Hans Baldung.