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The Complete Engravings, Etchings & Drypoints of Albrecht Dürer
All of Dürer's works in three mediums are reproduced in this edition. Among them are his most famous works, Knight, Death and Devil; Melencolia I; and St. Jerome in His Study. Also included are portraits of his contemporaries, including Erasmus of Rotterdam and Frederick the Wise, as well as six engravings formerly attributed to Dürer.
256 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1972
About the author
Albrecht Dürer
438 books33 followersGerman painter and engraver Albrecht Dürer incorporated the classicism of the Renaissance of Italy into northern European art.
This printmaker and theorist hailed from Nuremberg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrech...
This printmaker and theorist hailed from Nuremberg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrech...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 11, 2026
The Compete Engravings, Etchings and Drypoints of Albrech Durer, Edited by Walter Strauss
He is such a wierd guy. It can'tjust be that he's German and five hundred years in the past, the man is genuinely odd, all by himself.
This was the last of these books I bought but the first chronologically. I wanted to see more of the history of Engraving, of the pressed black lines, and Durer strides the spring.
He's so fucking odd. Grotesque. The engravings at least. There are no woodcuts in this book but I think I actually like the woodcuts *more*. The Old Pear Plank forces the armies of autistic detail back upon themselves and forces Durer to design a page. The grain simply won't let him chimp out like he wants to.
If the Italian Rennaisance was; "The Bible,but sexy." A world where everyone is slightly maybe gay and possibly bangable, then Durers world is "what if I am surrounde by strange-fleshed Gobin People?" What if even the hot people aren't actuall hot? I feel meat crawling on my bones.
When he has access to Engraving, in particular, I found Durers oddness, love of grotesquery, apparent hatred of human beauty, and frothing mania for detail, to be a kind of nightmare. Etching frees him from this a little and Drypoint frets him gently into a pleasing cloud of form, but the full-on burin-cutting, where he _presses_ down into the copper, carving off these looping snail-spirals of metal with his Godlsmiths hands...
What about 'Melencolia' what about 'The Knight, the Devil and Death'? Just Play the Hits Already! Yes. Durer is a genius without compare, and his pop hits amaze the eye, but, you have never had to read through a whole book of ALL the engravings where you get the Hits but also, say, a very long sequence on the Ressurection? Have you?
Cyberpunk Nurinberg; perspecitve has been invented in Italy, but its secrets are well-kept. Someone pirates an Italian book and artists creep through the city at night, to secret meetings where the book, and its knowledge will be shown. Durer makes estensive notes on the 'Proportions of the Horse' - oddly obsessed with horses, he will write the Core Text on his quine friends, but, someone _steals the horse notes_ and makes off with them! Capital and wealth, perhaps as an anti-piracy measure, but mainly for his ego, Durer incorporates his signature-sign not only into his pictures but as a diegetic item locked directly into the scene, like there is literally an actual phsysical sign in the image with 'Albrech Durer Did This' in effect. He DRM'd his etchings.
The strongest single stamp upon my mind, from all the Durer rambling, is the legend of Capital being born. From the moment mass replication becomes a thing, the buisness changes. Durer insists on staying his own publisher - He controls the prints, the plates, the creation, maintains patronate links by handing out free prints, and even plates, to the most important people in the land. Market reach, investment and control. If you can replicate it, so can someone else, so now you are a lawyer too, in a way few artists were before. And the stacking of artistic, industrial and buisness skills; you don't just draw, you carve, etch, engrave and drypoint cut, and you know how the press works. Perhaps you own the press. And you sell them yourself, (in fact your wife and mother do on your behalf). Now, instead of assistants in the studio, we have the goblin-men, those calm, careful and unrecognised men who fill studio's and complete the work of the engraver on the plate. These workmen, who apply the lines with human hands, only every go extinct in the early 20th century.
He is such a wierd guy. It can'tjust be that he's German and five hundred years in the past, the man is genuinely odd, all by himself.
This was the last of these books I bought but the first chronologically. I wanted to see more of the history of Engraving, of the pressed black lines, and Durer strides the spring.
He's so fucking odd. Grotesque. The engravings at least. There are no woodcuts in this book but I think I actually like the woodcuts *more*. The Old Pear Plank forces the armies of autistic detail back upon themselves and forces Durer to design a page. The grain simply won't let him chimp out like he wants to.
If the Italian Rennaisance was; "The Bible,but sexy." A world where everyone is slightly maybe gay and possibly bangable, then Durers world is "what if I am surrounde by strange-fleshed Gobin People?" What if even the hot people aren't actuall hot? I feel meat crawling on my bones.
When he has access to Engraving, in particular, I found Durers oddness, love of grotesquery, apparent hatred of human beauty, and frothing mania for detail, to be a kind of nightmare. Etching frees him from this a little and Drypoint frets him gently into a pleasing cloud of form, but the full-on burin-cutting, where he _presses_ down into the copper, carving off these looping snail-spirals of metal with his Godlsmiths hands...
What about 'Melencolia' what about 'The Knight, the Devil and Death'? Just Play the Hits Already! Yes. Durer is a genius without compare, and his pop hits amaze the eye, but, you have never had to read through a whole book of ALL the engravings where you get the Hits but also, say, a very long sequence on the Ressurection? Have you?
Cyberpunk Nurinberg; perspecitve has been invented in Italy, but its secrets are well-kept. Someone pirates an Italian book and artists creep through the city at night, to secret meetings where the book, and its knowledge will be shown. Durer makes estensive notes on the 'Proportions of the Horse' - oddly obsessed with horses, he will write the Core Text on his quine friends, but, someone _steals the horse notes_ and makes off with them! Capital and wealth, perhaps as an anti-piracy measure, but mainly for his ego, Durer incorporates his signature-sign not only into his pictures but as a diegetic item locked directly into the scene, like there is literally an actual phsysical sign in the image with 'Albrech Durer Did This' in effect. He DRM'd his etchings.
The strongest single stamp upon my mind, from all the Durer rambling, is the legend of Capital being born. From the moment mass replication becomes a thing, the buisness changes. Durer insists on staying his own publisher - He controls the prints, the plates, the creation, maintains patronate links by handing out free prints, and even plates, to the most important people in the land. Market reach, investment and control. If you can replicate it, so can someone else, so now you are a lawyer too, in a way few artists were before. And the stacking of artistic, industrial and buisness skills; you don't just draw, you carve, etch, engrave and drypoint cut, and you know how the press works. Perhaps you own the press. And you sell them yourself, (in fact your wife and mother do on your behalf). Now, instead of assistants in the studio, we have the goblin-men, those calm, careful and unrecognised men who fill studio's and complete the work of the engraver on the plate. These workmen, who apply the lines with human hands, only every go extinct in the early 20th century.
February 22, 2020
A pesar de no ser muy amigo de los libros de arte, no puedo dejar de recomendar este más que merecido homenaje a la obra de Alberto Durero, como le decimos por estas tierras. Destaco la calidad de las reproducciones, mucho mejor que la de cualquier imagen que se pueda encontrar en internet (sobre todo para grabados consideradas "menores"); así como las breves descripciones de cada pieza, que aportan detalles que podrían pasar desapercibidos al ojo poco atento.
October 21, 2007
I like engravings, etchings and drypoints better than woodcuts. I like Albrecht Durer's engravings, etchings and drypoints better than his woodcuts, which are thick and heavy. Some people prefer woodcuts. I like to look at delicate things. One of the best and most indelicate things I like to look at, however, is Albrecht Durer's Melancolia 1. "The magic square is a Jovian device used to counteract the unfavorable influence of Saturn." ha ha!
Thank you DOVER, Dover Press, I love Dover Press.
The engravings, etchings and drypoints of Albrecht Durer also come in handy as a reference if you are interested in the study of Saturn and Melancholy. I wish to have this particular volume around as company, any way, to make sure I have something better to look at than my own drawings. Also, it is a reminder that I am still trying to read, actually read and understand, Saturn and Melancholy, Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion, and Art by Raymond Kiblansky, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl. And this book, I hope, aids in my desire to avoid Robert Burton's thick and heavy Anatomy of Melancholy and leads me, at last, to read and have some reference of understanding of Walter Benjamin's Arcades....
I suggest another way to avoid Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy: read Epitaph of a Small Winner (or: Memoirs of Bras Cubas) by Machado de Assis. It will save you much thickness and heaviness of skull, and is more to the point, without the ceaseless streams of overlapping quotations.
Thank you DOVER, Dover Press, I love Dover Press.
The engravings, etchings and drypoints of Albrecht Durer also come in handy as a reference if you are interested in the study of Saturn and Melancholy. I wish to have this particular volume around as company, any way, to make sure I have something better to look at than my own drawings. Also, it is a reminder that I am still trying to read, actually read and understand, Saturn and Melancholy, Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion, and Art by Raymond Kiblansky, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl. And this book, I hope, aids in my desire to avoid Robert Burton's thick and heavy Anatomy of Melancholy and leads me, at last, to read and have some reference of understanding of Walter Benjamin's Arcades....
I suggest another way to avoid Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy: read Epitaph of a Small Winner (or: Memoirs of Bras Cubas) by Machado de Assis. It will save you much thickness and heaviness of skull, and is more to the point, without the ceaseless streams of overlapping quotations.
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November 16, 2010Snello (forse un po' troppo snello) commento al collocamento di Durer nell'arte tedesca proiettata verso il rinascimento.
Di rigore dopo un viaggio a Norimberga, lascia ancora molto affamati di letture sul maestro francone. Consigli ben accetti.
Di rigore dopo un viaggio a Norimberga, lascia ancora molto affamati di letture sul maestro francone. Consigli ben accetti.
August 11, 2015
Also lovely.
November 28, 2016
Recommended Companion Book for Seattle Art Museum Graphic Masters Exhibit. Complete set. Good but not exceptional reproductions. Nice informative intros and good individual descriptors.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews