Albrecht Dürer

by Sandra Forty

Albrecht Dürer, who lived from 1471 to 1528, worked during the time of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Typical of his era, religion was the subject of most of his creative work. We know more about Dürer than many artists of his day, thanks to his proclivity with the pen as well as with his paintbrush. He was also widely known across Europe during his lifetime because much of his work was disseminated by printing. Dürer left a considerable body of work: around 1,300 drawings and sketches, copper engravings, woodcut prints, numerous portraits, and several significant altarpieces. Dürer single-handedly transformed the way woodcuts were composed to produce much more texture within the finished print. After his death, Dürer’s reputation achieved almost cult status in Germany, with huge jubilee celebrations in 1828, 300 years after his death. Today, Dürer is justifiably renowned as one of the greatest Renaissance artists.

Genres: Art

108 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 19, 2012

About the author

Sandra Forty is a graduate of London University where she studied medieval and early modern history, including a spell at the Courtald Institute learning about Renaissance art from Professor Gombrich.

Since then she has worked as a journalist in London, then as a book editor and writer.

She is the author of a number of books, most on art and architecture.

Reviews

[Monty Milne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful little book with a short but valuable biographical essay and excellent reproductions of over eighty of the artist’s works. I love them all. My favourite portrait is the Emperor Maximilian: his sneer of cold command framed by his warm brown fur and velvet and the beautiful deep green background. My favourite of the great religious set piece paintings is the Adoration of the Magi: there is so much delight in the careful composition of figures, architecture, and colours.

My favourite engraving is the copper engraving known as the Knight. Viewing it gives not only aesthetic pleasure but also intellectual delight in teasing out the allegorical meaning. And yes, the Devil lurks in the background and the sly fox in the foreground – but the delightful dog trotting under the horse reminds us of fidelity, and the knight looks confident and well protected in his armour. You don’t need to be an armour clad knight or even a Christian to find resonances here: we all experience the devilish and the sly, and we all have allies and protection.

Durer has been claimed by both Protestants and Catholics. He lived on the cusp of changing times, when identities were more fluid than they later seemed. Confining him in a box is neither helpful nor necessary: he was an artist for all seasons, including our own.

[7jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just randomly bought this one, though I already had some interest in his art. He lived in quite intersting times of Luther and the Protestant reformation + Renaissance (esp. German/North European type has its influence) coming on. We know a lot about him through his correspondence.
Here, there is first a short biographical text, then a bunch of his work. He traveled a lot (important especially when he was becoming the artist he turned out to be), was also a mathematician and published work in that field also, and his work in printed artwork and his portraits kept him in steady money through his life.

Religion seems to be the most common subject, but his portraits (incl. self, of which the earliest at the age of 13) and nature pictures are also good. On the woodcuts side the style of his work had a big influence on later artists doing it. But generally, of all his art, I think the 'praying hands' is perhaps the best known, even when people don't know it's his.

My favorites here are: the 1500 self-portrait, seven sorrows of the Virgin, young hare, the praying hands of course, little owl, Madonna and child with a pear, four horsemen of the apocalypse, apostle Paul, and Christ on the Mount of Olives.

For a book with just a short biography and a nice bunch of art, this satisfies me quite nicely, so I feel plenty happy about just buying it so quickly as I did XD And if I want to, I can just pick a page and look at a picture for as long as I like – very lovely.