Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

Considered one of the greatest Graphic Artists in history, Albrecht Dürer elevated printmaking to the level of painting through his unprecedented use of line and value.  Albrecht Durer, born on May 21, 147, was the third of 18 children born to Albrecht Dürer, a goldsmith who had moved to Nuremberg, Germany from the Kingdom of Hungary and Barbara Holfer, the daughter of Albrecht Dürer the Elder’s master.

His precocious skill is evidenced by a remarkable self-portrait done in 1484, when he was 13 years old, and by a Madonna with Musical Angels, done in 1485, which is already a finished work of art in the late Gothic style.

Die Satyfamilie by Albrecht Dürer

In 1486, Dürer was apprenticed to the well-known Nuremberg artist Michael Wolgemut, from whom he learned the fundamentals of painting and printmaking.

After his three year’s apprenticeship was over Dürer went on travel for four years. He went of Venice, certainly to Colmar where the works of Martin Schongauer impressed him.

Through his life, Dürer had significant contact to individuals with health problems and with disabilities.

In 1498 appeared Dürer’s sixteen great woodcuts of the ‘Apocalypse; which introduced a new epoch in the art of wood-engraving. In 1507, he journeyed home, where he formed a school and pupils and apprentices gathered around him.

Dürer built his reputation with graphic works such as the Large Passion and Small Passion and the Life of the Virgin, which were published in 1511, as well as by accepting painting commission.
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)