First self-portrait of 13-year-old Dürer
Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait
Albrecht Dürer Sr. (1, 2), a Hungarian immigrant, had a jewelry workshop in Nuremberg and 18 daughters and sons, four of whom survived. The third of the Dürer children, also Albrecht, like his father, spent all day in the workshop from the age of ten. In truth, at first he only watched carefully. I watched how multi-colored stones were framed, becoming part of a ring or necklace; how a twisted ornament of leaves and buds gradually, obeying the father’s chisel, entangles the neck of a silver vase, and a pot-bellied gilded chalice (a church cup for taking communion) “overgrows” with vines and grapes. By the age of thirteen, his father was already instructing Albrecht Jr. to prepare sketches for the same necklace, crown or bowl. The third son of the Dürers turned out to have a steady hand, an excellent eye and a sense of proportions. His God-fearing father could thank heaven that the family business had good long-term prospects.
Albrecht Durer. Double Cup
Albrecht Durer. Imperial crown
Sketches of jewelry made by Dürer already in adulthood.
One day, taking the usual silver pencil for a jeweler’s apprentice, which does not allow any corrections, 13-year-old Albrecht, checking the reflection in the mirror, depicted himself. It turned out to be difficult - all the time looking from the reflection to the paper and back, keeping the pose and facial expression unchanged. It was even more exotic to realize that there were now three Albrechts in the studio - one in the amalgam of the mirror, the second gradually emerging on paper, and the third, concentrating all his spiritual forces, trying to make the first two coincide as much as possible. He just didn’t depict his magic pencil - he only drew a fragile brush with an outstretched finger, as if pointing to something invisible to us or trying to measure something.
In the upper right corner there is an inscription: “I drew myself in a mirror in 1484, when I was still a child. Albrecht Durer". In Germany at the end of the 15th century, self-portraits were not accepted. The 13-year-old Dürer could not see any examples, just as he could not imagine that one day it would be thanks to him that such a genre would establish itself in European art - the self-portrait. With the interest of a natural scientist, so characteristic of the Renaissance, Albrecht simply recorded the object that interested him - his own face - and did not try to decorate, heroize or dress himself up (as he would do as he matured).
“This touching face with childishly chubby cheeks and wide open eyes,” art historian Marcel Brion describes Dürer’s first self-portrait. — These bulging eyes, like the eyes of a bird of prey, can look at the sun without blinking. The drawing in this place is somewhat inept. A silver pencil, more suitable for the painstaking precision of a goldsmith's sketches, sharply outlines the curve of the eyelids and the highlights of the eyeball. The gaze is concentrated and almost hallucinatory, which may have been caused by some awkwardness of the young draftsman, or perhaps by an amazing intuition, which was already a distinctive feature of the little Dürer’s character. The face is turned three-quarters, revealing a gentle oval of full cheeks, a nose with a hump, similar to a beak. There is some kind of indecision and incompleteness in the boy’s face, but his nose and eyes testify to the exceptional individuality of the author, self-confident, the master of his soul and destiny.”
Self-portrait with a study of a hand and a pillow and a self-portrait with a bandage
Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait with study of hand and pillow (recto side of sheet)
Albrecht Durer. Six studies of pillows (reverse side of "Self-Portrait with Studies of a Hand and Pillow")
Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait with bandage
1491
The following graphic self-portraits of Albrecht Dürer that have come down to us were made in 1491-1493. Their author is just over twenty. Here it is not a silver pencil that is used, but a pen and ink. And Dürer himself is no longer an apprentice jeweler, but an aspiring artist. His father very much regretted the futile efforts spent on teaching Albrecht “gold and silversmithing skills,” but, seeing the persistence with which his son strives to become an artist, he sent him to study with the painter and carver Michael Wolgemut, after which Dürer went, as it was then accepted, on a creative journey. The “years of wanderings” during which these self-portraits were executed will make him a true master.
Self-portrait with a sketch of a hand and a pillow, at first glance, seems to be something of a caricature, a friendly caricature of oneself. But, most likely, there is no secret meaning here and this is just a graphic exercise. Dürer is “training his hand”, training to create full-fledged three-dimensional objects using shading and analyzing how the strokes are laid, recording their deformations: on the reverse side of the self-portrait there are 6 differently crushed pillows.
The subject of Durer's close attention in self-portraits-studies, along with the face, are the hands. Being an excellent draftsman, Dürer considered the hands to be one of the most significant and interesting objects for study and depiction. He never gave his hands in general terms; he always carefully worked out the skin texture, the smallest lines and wrinkles. A sketch for one of Dürer’s altarpieces, “Hands of a Prayer/Apostle” (1508), for example, is famous as an independent work. By the way, thin hands with long fingers tapering upward, the owner of which was Dürer himself, in his time were considered a sign of high spiritual perfection.
In these two youthful portraits, art critics read “concern, anxiety, self-doubt.” An emotional feature is already obvious in them, which will remain in all the artist’s subsequent self-portraits: in none of them did he depict himself joyful or even with a shadow of a smile. This was partly a tribute to pictorial tradition (no one laughs in medieval painting), and partly it reflected character. Having inherited from his father the inescapable family silence and gloom, Dürer always remained a complex, intensely thinking person, alien to self-satisfaction: it is not for nothing that Dürer’s famous engraving “Melancholy” is often called his spiritual self-portrait.
Self-Portrait with Holly
Albrecht Durer. Self-Portrait with Holly (Self-Portrait with Thistle)
1493, 56×44 cm
While Dürer was traveling in the vicinity of the Upper Rhine and improving himself, meeting famous German artists and sketching views of cities and mountains, his father in Nuremberg got him a bride. He informs his unsuspecting son, who was in Strasbourg at that moment, about the matchmaking as a fait accompli by letter. About the girl Agnes Frei, the father wrote almost nothing to Durer, but he told a lot about her parents: the future father-in-law Hans Frei, a master of interior fountains, was about to be appointed to the Great Council of Nuremberg, and the mother-in-law was generally from the patrician (albeit impoverished) Rummel dynasty .
The elder Durer, who himself came from Hungarian grain growers, really wanted to make a good match for Albrecht and therefore demanded that his son finish all his unfinished business and return to Nuremberg, and in the meantime - is he now an artist or what? - write and send your own portrait to Agnes, so that the bride can imagine what her betrothed looks like, whom she has never seen before.
The portrait that played the role of a sort of “preview” in Dürer’s family life is considered to be “Self-Portrait with Holly” (1493). It was painted not on wood, like most portraits of that time, but on parchment (it is assumed that in this form it was easier to send the portrait), only in 1840 the image was transferred to canvas. Dürer is 22 years old here. For the first time in a self-portrait, his task is not to know himself, but to show himself to others, to “present” his appearance and personality to the world. And for Dürer this turns out to be an interesting challenge, to which he responds with special artistic passion. Dürer portrays himself with a defiant, carnival-theatrical elegance: his thin white shirt is tied with mauve cords, the sleeves of his outer dress are decorated with slits, and his extravagant red hat looks more like a dahlia flower than a headdress.
Dürer squeezes an elegant thorn with his fingers, the nature and symbolism of which is disputed. In Russian, the name “Self-Portrait with Holly” is assigned to the painting, but the plant, which in Russian is called holly (or holly), blooms and looks somewhat different. From a botanical point of view, Dürer is holding in his hands Eryngium amethystinum - amethyst eryngium, also called “blue thistle”. According to one version, this is how the devout Durer points to his “symbol of faith” - the crown of thorns of Christ. Another version says that in Germany, in one of the dialects, the name for eryngium is Männer treu (“male fidelity”), which means that Dürer makes it clear that he is not going to contradict his father and promises Agnes to be a faithful husband. The inscription on a dark background My sach die gat / Als es oben schtat is translated as “My affairs are determined from above”(there is also a rhyming translation: “My business is going as heaven ordered”). It can also be interpreted as an expression of submission to fate and parental will. But the suit lets slip: “I will do as my father orders, but this will not stop me from being myself and moving along my chosen path.”.
Albrecht Durer. Wife Agnes
Albrecht Durer. Agnes Durer
Graphic portraits of Agnes Dürer (1495 and 1521), executed by her husband at intervals of a quarter of a century
Albrecht and Agnes will soon get married, as their parents wanted, and will live a long life together, which few would dare to call happy: the two halves of the childless Durer couple turned out to be too different in nature. “There was probably never any understanding between him and his wife, writes Galina Matvievskaya in the monograph “Albrecht Durer - Scientist”. — Practical and prudent Agnes was apparently very disappointed that the whole way of her new life was not at all similar to the one she was accustomed to at her father’s house. Striving to live an orderly burgher life, subject to simple and clear rules, she energetically supported Dürer in all economic matters and took care of the material well-being of the house, but her husband’s aspirations and ideals remained alien to her. Undoubtedly, it was not easy for her: even being nearby, Dürer lived his own life, incomprehensible to her... Over time, she became embittered, became callous and stingy, and obvious hostility crept into their relationship.”.
“Dürer the Magnificent”: self-portrait from the Prado
Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait
1498, 41×52 cm. Oil, Wood
Das malt ich nach meiner gestalt / Ich war sex und zwenzig Jor alt / Albrecht Dürer - “I wrote this from myself. I was 26 years old. Albrecht Durer". Only five years passed between the two self-portraits - this and the previous one, and these were very important years in Dürer’s biography. During these five years, Dürer not only got married, but also became famous, not only matured, but also managed to recognize himself as a great artist, a universal personality, for whom the confines of his hometown became cramped, since now Dürer needs the whole world. In this self-portrait from the Prado, in Dürer’s very gaze, in his calm and confident pose and in the way his hands rest on the parapet, there is a special, conscious dignity.
At the time of writing the self-portrait, Dürer had recently returned from his second trip to Italy. In northern Europe, he is widely known as a magnificent engraver, whose “Apocalypse” cycle, printed in the printing house of his godfather Anton Koberger, sold in huge quantities. In Italy, this cradle of art, Dürer is maliciously copied, and he sues the manufacturers of counterfeits, defending his good name, and also proves to doubting Italians that he is as magnificent in painting as in engraving, having painted the painting “Feast of the Rosary” (his we tell the story in detail here). The new self-portrait is a kind of declaration that Dürer is no longer a craftsman (and in his native Nuremberg, artists are still considered representatives of the craft class) - he is an artist, and therefore God’s chosen one.
This is the self-awareness not of a medieval master, but of a Renaissance artist. Dürer, not without defiance, depicts himself in Italian attire, elegant and expensive: his gathered shirt made of white silk is decorated with golden embroidery at the collar, wide black stripes on his cap with tassels rhyme with the black contrasting trim of his clothes, a brown cape made of heavy expensive fabric is held at the level of the collarbones with a braided cord threaded through the eyelets. Dürer has acquired a dandy beard, which still seems to smell of Venetian perfume, and his golden-red hair is carefully curled, which causes ridicule among his pragmatic compatriots. In Nuremberg, his wife or mother hid his outfits in a chest: as a representative of the craft class, Dürer, as biographers write, had no right to allow himself such provocative luxury. And with this self-portrait he polemically declares: an artist is not a craftsman, his position in the social hierarchy is much higher. His beautiful, finely crafted kid gloves scream the same thing. “White gloves, also brought from Italy,” writes Dürer's biographer Stanislav Zarnitsky, — hide the employee’s honest hands, covered with abrasions, cuts, stains of ingrained paint.”). His gloves are a symbol of his new status. An expensive suit in Venetian fashion and a mountain landscape outside the window (a tribute to his mentor Giovanni Bellini) all indicate that Dürer no longer agrees with considering himself a provincial artisan, limited by the conventions of time and space.
Self-portrait in clothes trimmed with fur (“Self-portrait at the age of 28”,
"Self-portrait in a fur coat"
Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait
1500, 67×49 cm. Oil, Wood
This same tendency to view the artist not as a simple artisan, but as a universal personality, Dürer takes to its logical extreme in the painting that would later become the most famous of his self-portraits. This is how his appearance is described in the biographical novel “Dürer” by Stanislav Zarnitsky:
“Old Dürer, once entering his son’s workshop, saw a painting he had just completed. Christ - so it seemed to the goldsmith, whose eyesight had completely deteriorated. But, looking more closely, he saw in front of him not Jesus, but his Albrecht. In the portrait his son was dressed in a rich fur coat. A hand with pale fingers, helpless in their thinness, was chillingly pulling at its sides. From the gloomy background, as if from nothingness, protruded not just a face - the face of a saint. An unearthly grief froze in his eyes. In small letters there is an inscription: “This is how I, Albrecht Durer from Nuremberg, painted myself at the age of 28 in eternal colors.”
For the first time, Dürer depicts himself not in a three-quarter spread, but strictly frontally - this was not the customary way to paint secular portraits, only saints. With a transparent “look into eternity”, the beauty of his entire appearance and a gesture of his hand, similar to a gesture of blessing, he consciously likens himself to Christ. Was it particularly daring on the part of the artist to paint himself in the image of the Savior? Dürer was known as a zealous Christian and was confident that becoming like Christ for a believer was not only a life task, but also a duty. “Because of the Christian faith we must be exposed to insults and dangers.”- said Dürer.
Some researchers point out that the painting was painted in 1500, when humanity once again expected the end of the world, therefore, this self-portrait is a kind of spiritual testament of Durer.
Self-portrait as the dead Christ?
Albrecht Durer. Dead Christ wearing a crown of thorns
1503
Dead Christ in a Crown of ThornsDurer's drawing with the thrown back head of the dead Jesus is considered by some to be a self-portrait. They say that at the “age of Christ” or so Dürer became very ill and was close to death. For several days he was shaken by a fever, Dürer lay exhausted, with dry lips and sunken eyes. At that moment everyone thought that the devout artist would send for a priest. But he demanded to bring a small mirror, placed it on his chest and, barely finding the strength to raise his head, peered at his reflection for a long time. This frightened Dürer’s relatives: perhaps they thought that under the influence of illness he had gone mad, for no one had ever thought of admiring himself in the mirror on his deathbed. When Dürer recovered, he made this drawing based on what he saw. In the lower third of the sheet we see a large monogram of the artist - the letters A and D one above the other and the year - 1503 (Dürer was born in 1471).
Self-portraits of Albrecht Durer, which are known only in words
Two interesting references to lost self-portraits of Dürer have reached us. Both belong to the artist's contemporaries. The first is the Italian Giorgio Vasari, the author of the famous “Biographies,” and the second is the German, well-known lawyer in Nuremberg Christoph Scheirl, who published the brochure “Little Book in Praise of Germany” in 1508.
Both speak of Durer’s virtuosity using living examples, and therefore their descriptions deserve attention, although we do not know exactly which self-portraits we are talking about.
Vasari tells how Dürer, whom he calls “an amazing German painter and copper engraver who produced the most beautiful prints", sent to his younger colleague Rafael “the head self-portrait, made by him in gouache on the thinnest fabric so that it could be viewed equally from both sides, and the highlights were without white and transparent, and the other light areas of the image were untouched with the expectation of translucent fabric, being only barely tinted and touched by color watercolor. This thing seemed amazing to Raphael, and therefore he sent him many sheets with his own drawings, which Albrecht especially treasured.”.
The incident described by Scheirl seems like a naive curiosity and tells the story of Dürer and his dog:
“...Once, when he painted his own portrait with the help of a mirror and placed the still fresh picture in the sun, his dog, just running past, licked it, believing that it had run into its master (for only dogs, according to the same Pliny , know their names and recognize their master, even if he appears completely unexpectedly). And I can testify that the traces of this are still visible to this day. How often, moreover, did the maids try to erase the cobwebs he had carefully written!
Cameo self-portraits (Dürer in multi-figure paintings as himself)
By performing solo self-portraits, Dürer was an innovator. But sometimes he acted more traditionally, as many of his predecessors and contemporaries did - he inscribed his own image into multi-figure compositions. Placing oneself on the altar door or inside a dense crowd of “praying and waiting” was a common practice for artists of Dürer’s time.
Albrecht Durer. Feast of the Rosary (Feast of Rose Wreaths)
1506, 162×194.5 cm. Oil, Wood
In the right corner of the altar painting “Feast of the Rosary,” commissioned by the German community in Venice, the artist depicts himself in magnificent attire. In his hands he holds a scroll where it is written that Albrecht Dürer completed the painting in five months, although in fact the work on it lasted at least eight: it was important for Dürer to prove to the doubting Italians that he was as good in painting as in engraving.
Albrecht Durer. Altar of Job (Altar of Yabach). Reconstruction
1504
The Jabach Altar (sometimes called the "Job Altar") was probably commissioned by Dürer by the Elector of Saxony, Frederick III, for the castle in Wittenberg to commemorate the end of the plague epidemic of 1503. Later, the altar was acquired by the Cologne Jabach family; until the 18th century it was in Cologne, then it was divided, and its central part was lost. This is what the disparate outer doors looked like now: on the left is the long-suffering Job and his wife, and on the right are the musicians who came to console Job. Dürer portrayed himself as a drummer. In reality, the artist was interested in music, tried to play the lute, but there is something even more undoubtedly Durerian in this image - the inherent extravagance in his choice of clothing. Dürer the drummer depicts himself in a black turban and an unusual cut short orange cape.
Alleged self-portraits of Dürer can be found in his works The Torment of Ten Thousand Christians, The Heller Altar and The Adoration of the Trinity.
Albrecht Durer. Martyrdom of ten thousand Christians
1508, 99×87 cm
Albrecht Durer. Heller Altar (Altar of the Assumption of Mary). Reconstruction
1500s, 190×260 cm. Oil, Tempera, Wood
Albrecht Durer. Adoration of the Holy Trinity (Landauer Altar)
1511, 135×123 cm
And here are fragments of the above works with self-portraits of Durer:
Durer nude
Albrecht Durer. Nude self-portrait
1509, 29×15 cm. Ink, Paper
The 16th-century German philologist and historian Joachim Camerarius the Elder wrote an essay on the artist’s life and work for the publication of Durer’s book on proportions. Camerari described Dürer’s appearance in it as follows: “Nature endowed him with a body outstanding for its slimness and posture and completely consistent with his noble spirit... He had an expressive face, sparkling eyes, a noble nose,... a rather long neck, a very broad chest, a toned stomach, muscular thighs, strong and slender legs . But you'd say you've never seen anything more graceful than his fingers. His speech was so sweet and witty that nothing upset his listeners more than its ending.”.
The frankness with which Dürer depicts not someone else’s, but his own nudity, right up to the twentieth century and similar experiments of Lucian Freud, remained something unprecedented and so shocking that in many publications this generational self-portrait of Dürer was bashfully cut off at waist level.
However, it must be understood that Dürer’s strategy was not to shock anyone. Rather, he was driven by the same Renaissance interest of a natural scientist, who at the age of 13 made the future artist become interested in his own face and immediately check whether he could “double nature” by capturing what he saw in a drawing. Moreover, in Germany during Dürer’s time, depicting a naked body from life presented a serious problem: unlike Italy, where finding models of both sexes was not difficult and did not cost too much, it was not customary for the Germans to pose nude for artists. And Dürer himself complained a lot about the fact that he was forced to learn to draw the human body from the works of Italians (Andrea Mantegna and others), and Vasari, in his biography of Marcantonio, even allowed such a condescendingly caustic passage regarding Dürer’s ability to depict the naked body:
“... I am ready to believe that Albrecht, perhaps, could not have done better, since, having no other opportunity, he was forced, when depicting a naked body, to copy his own students, who probably, like most Germans, had ugly bodies, although the people of these countries seem very beautiful when dressed.”.
Even if we indignantly reject Vasari’s attack on the ugliness of German figures, it is natural to assume that, being by nature the owner of excellent proportions, Dürer actively used his own body for his artistic and anthropometric studies. Over time, issues of the structure of the human body and the relationship of its parts became one of the main issues in Dürer’s work and worldview.
Albrecht Durer. Men's bath
In the engraving “Men's Bath,” Dürer finds a “legal” and successful reason for depicting nudity, which in no way offends public morality and prevents reproaches from conservatives or bigots. Baths are a special pride of German cities. They, like the Roman baths, serve as a place for friendly meetings and meaningful conversations. But look, no one is dressed in the bathhouse! In the foreground of the engraving, Dürer depicts his mentor Michael Wolgemuth and his closest friend Willibald Pirkheimer. There is also a self-portrait of Durer here: his muscular body goes to the flutist from the background.
Self-portraits of Dürer as the “man of sorrows”
Albrecht Durer. Man of Sorrows (Self-Portrait)
1522, 40.8×29 cm. Pencil, Paper
“I myself found a gray hair, it grew on me because of poverty and because I suffer so much. I think I was born to get into trouble.". The above words are a quote from Dürer’s letter to a friend and, perhaps, the most intimate expression of what he thinks about his own life.
This late self-portrait paradoxically connects two attitudes of earlier self-portraits: to use one's naked body as a subject and to identify oneself in a certain way with Christ. Drawing his already middle-aged body and his face, touched by aging, recording how the muscles and skin gradually become flabby, forming folds of skin where they were not there yesterday, recording the changes taking place with sober objectivity, Dürer simultaneously designs this self-portrait in accordance with the iconographic type “ a man of sorrows." This definition, coming from the Old Testament “Book of Isaiah,” denoted the tormented Christ - in a crown of thorns, half naked, beaten, spat on, with a bloody wound under the ribs (1, 2).
Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait
1521
And this self-portrait is not a painting or an engraving, but a visualization of the diagnosis from a letter written by Dürer to the doctor from whom he wanted to get a consultation. At the top there is an explanation: “Where the yellow spot is and where my finger points, that’s where it hurts.”
Poverty, illness, litigation with clients and the arrest of his beloved students accused of godlessness, the refusal of the Nuremberg authorities to pay the artist the annual allowance assigned by the late Emperor Maximilian, lack of understanding in the family - Dürer’s last years were not easy and filled with sadness. Having undertaken a long journey to see a beached whale, 50-year-old Dürer will contract malaria, from the consequences of which he will not be able to recover until he dies. A serious illness (possibly a tumor of the pancreas) led to the fact that, according to Willibald Pirkheimer, Dürer dried up “like a bunch of straw.” And when he is buried (without special honors - the Nuremberg artisan had no right to them), the unreasonable admirers of the genius who have come to their senses will insist on exhumation in order to remove his death mask. And his famous wavy locks will be cut off and taken apart as a keepsake. As if his memory needed these supports from his mortal flesh, while Dürer left immortal evidence of himself - engravings, paintings, books, and finally, self-portraits.
Description of some famous portraits of the master.
Portraits of Dürer
One of the greatest masters of portraiture in the history of world painting, Durer often and willingly turned to this genre. He created a particularly large number of portrait images in the late period of his creativity, when he was a famous and universally recognized painter. Thus, in just one year of his stay in the Netherlands, Dürer completed over 100 portraits. Apparently, the explanation for this should be sought in the fact that a portrait - usually commissioned - has always served artists as one of the most effective means of strengthening their position in society, and Dürer, who invariably cared about his fame and social status, was no exception. On the other hand, the extensive presence of portrait images in the artist’s late work is evidence of Durer’s tireless and, as a rule, benevolent interest in the people around him, whose appearance and manners he never stopped studying with all his characteristic attention.
Among the artist's models we find influential courtiers, wealthy merchants, humanist scholars whose writings could help spread the fame of the German master far beyond the borders of Germany, and Maximilian I himself, the powerful Holy Roman Emperor.
The formula for Dürer's portrait composition in all his works is very similar: most often, the artist depicts a person up to his chest, turning him 45 degrees away from the viewer. The background of the picture is neutral and does not attract undue attention. The gaze of the hero of the picture can be directed either towards the viewer or to the side.
In terms of pictorial stylistics, Dürer's work marked the convergence of two traditions of Renaissance portraiture, the roots of which came from Netherlandish and Italian art, the foundations of which were laid by Van Eyck, Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini. From the first, he uses a complex of artistic methods for depicting the face and figure, interpreted in detail, from the second - a specific understanding of the image of a person, shown as an active and ambitious person, marked by a bright emotionality of inner life.
Portrait of Bernard Von Restaing
1521. Picture gallery, Dresden
Almost nothing is known about the hero of Durer’s famous portrait, but - and this is the main secret of the magical art of Durer’s “portraiture” - the intensity of the spiritual life of the person shown, as well as the rare spontaneity of displaying his external appearance, force the viewer to perceive him as a well-known personality.
1526. State Museums, Berlin
The image of Durer's good and close friend, member of the Nuremberg City Council Hieronymus Holzschuer, is one of the artist's most high-quality and masterful portraits. The frightening and wary gaze of the model’s eyes, searing through the viewer, immediately attracts attention, captivating by the power of internal expression that this image possesses. In his interpretation of the painted surface of the portrait, Dürer follows in the footsteps of his predecessors, the Dutch masters of the 15th century, who were able to reproduce with an unimaginable degree of detail all the features of the model’s external appearance. Like them, the artist with amazing skill describes literally every hair of his hero’s beard and hair, in the pupil of which one can see a microscopic reflection of the window frame in the artist’s studio. However, the strength of this man’s spiritual life, manifesting itself in an energetic turn of the torso and a decisive and bold gaze directed in the opposite direction, makes us recall the heroic intonations in the portraits of the masters of the Italian Renaissance, about how people were shown in the works of Mantegna and Raphael.
1524. Copper engraving
Dürer painted a portrait of his good friend more than once: the painter’s collection includes both painted portraits and many engravings. You can also find plot images where, in the images of various heroes, you can easily guess the characteristic appearance of our hero, easily recognizable thanks to the unnatural curvature of his nose and his thick face. However, when examining this engraving, one gets the feeling that Dürer wanted to create more than a simple portrait, which in general terms would remind others of his friend. He carefully described every detail of the appearance, because they contain the hero’s individuality.
1528. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
This - probably the last - portrait by Dürer depicts an alchemist and adherent of the occult, with whom Pirkheimer associated his deep personal grief. John Kleberger appeared in the city suddenly in the midst of fierce debate about the Reformation. He soon married Pirkheimer's recently widowed daughter Felicia, and then suddenly disappeared. After some time, Felicia died, and rumor for a long time attributed to Kleberger the poisoning of the young woman with some slow-acting poison.
Portraits of Dürer updated: September 15, 2017 by: Gleb
Albrecht Dürer (German: Albrecht Dürer, May 21, 1471, Nuremberg - April 6, 1528, Nuremberg) - German painter and graphic artist, one of the greatest masters of the Western European Renaissance. Recognized as the largest European master of woodblock printing, who raised it to the level of real art. The first art theorist among Northern European artists, the author of a practical guide to fine and decorative arts in German, who promoted the need for the diversified development of artists. Founder of comparative anthropometry. The first European artist to write an autobiography.
Biography of Albrecht Durer
The future artist was born on May 21, 1471 in Nuremberg, in the family of jeweler Albrecht Dürer, who arrived in this German city from Hungary in the mid-15th century, and Barbara Holper. The Dürers had eighteen children, some, as Dürer the Younger himself wrote, died “in their youth, others when they grew up.” In 1524, only three of the Durer children were alive - Albrecht, Hans and Endres.
The future artist was the third child and second son in the family. His father, Albrecht Dürer the Elder, literally translated his Hungarian surname Aitoshi (Hungarian Ajtósi, from the name of the village of Aitosh, from the word ajtó - “door.”) into German as Türer; subsequently it was transformed under the influence of Frankish pronunciation and began to be written Dürer. Albrecht Dürer the Younger remembered his mother as a pious woman who lived a difficult life. Perhaps weakened by frequent pregnancies, she was sick a lot. The famous German publisher Anton Koberger became Dürer's godfather.
For some time, the Durers rented half of the house (next to the city central market) from the lawyer and diplomat Johann Pirkheimer. Hence the close acquaintance of two families belonging to different urban classes: the patricians Pirkheimers and the artisans Durers. Dürer the Younger was friends with Johann's son, Willibald, one of the most enlightened people in Germany, all his life. Thanks to him, the artist later entered the circle of humanists in Nuremberg, whose leader was Pirkheimer, and became his own man there.
From 1477 Albrecht attended the Latin school. At first, the father involved his son in working in a jewelry workshop. However, Albrecht wanted to paint. The elder Dürer, despite regretting the time spent training his son, gave in to his requests, and at the age of 15, Albrecht was sent to the workshop of the leading Nuremberg artist of the time, Michael Wolgemut. Durer himself spoke about this in his “Family Chronicle,” which he created at the end of his life, one of the first autobiographies in the history of Western European art.
From Wolgemut, Dürer mastered not only painting, but also wood engraving. Wolgemut, together with his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurf, made engravings for Hartmann Schedel's Book of Chronicles. In the work on the most illustrated book of the 15th century, which experts consider the Book of Chronicles, Wolgemut was helped by his students. One of the engravings for this edition, "Dance of Death", is attributed to Albrecht Dürer.
Altdorfer's work
Painting
Having dreamed of painting since childhood, Albrecht insisted that his father send him to study as an artist. After his first trip to Italy, he had not yet fully grasped the achievements of Italian masters, but in his works one can already feel an artist who thinks outside the box and is always ready to search. Dürer probably received the title of master (and with it the right to open his own workshop) by completing murals in the “Greek style” in the house of Nuremberg citizen Sebald Schreyer. Frederick the Wise drew attention to the young artist, who instructed him, among other things, to paint his portrait. Following the Elector of Saxony, the Nuremberg patricians also wanted to have their own images - at the turn of the century, Dürer worked a lot in the portrait genre. Here Dürer continued the tradition that had developed in the painting of Northern Europe: the model is presented in a three-quarter spread against the background of a landscape, all the details are depicted very carefully and realistically.
After the publication of “Apocalypse,” Dürer became famous in Europe as a master of engraving, and only during his second stay in Italy received recognition abroad as a painter. In 1505, Jacob Wimpfeling wrote in his German History that Dürer's paintings were valued in Italy "...as highly as the paintings of Parrhasius and Apelles." The works completed after his trip to Venice demonstrate Dürer’s success in solving problems of depicting the human body, including the nude, complex angles, and characters in motion. The Gothic angularity characteristic of his early works disappears. The artist relied on the execution of ambitious painting projects, accepting orders for multi-figure altarpieces. The works of 1507-1511 are distinguished by a balanced composition, strict symmetry, “some rationality,” and a dry manner of depiction. Unlike his Venetian works, Dürer did not strive to convey the effects of a light-air environment; he worked with local colors, perhaps yielding to the conservative tastes of his clients. Received into service by Emperor Maximilian, he gained some financial independence and, leaving painting for a while, turned to scientific research and engraving work.
Self-portraits
The emergence of the Northern European self-portrait as an independent genre is associated with the name of Dürer. One of the best portrait painters of his time, he highly valued painting because it made it possible to preserve the image of a particular person for future generations. Biographers note that, having an attractive appearance, Dürer especially loved to portray himself in his youth and reproduced his appearance not without a “vain desire to please the viewer.” For Dürer, a picturesque self-portrait is a means of emphasizing his status and a milestone marking a certain stage of his life. Here he appears as a person whose intellectual and spiritual development is higher than the level that was determined by his class position, which was uncharacteristic of self-portraits of artists of that era. In addition, he once again asserted the high importance of fine art (unfairly, as he believed, excluded from the “seven liberal arts”) at a time when in Germany it was still considered a craft.
Drawings
About a thousand (Julia Bartrum says about 970) of Dürer’s drawings have survived: landscapes, portraits, sketches of people, animals and plants. Evidence of how carefully the artist treated his drawing is the fact that even his student works have been preserved. Dürer's graphic heritage, one of the largest in the history of European art, is on a par with the graphics of da Vinci and Rembrandt in terms of volume and significance. Free from the arbitrariness of the customer and his desire for the absolute, which introduced a share of coldness into his paintings, the artist most fully revealed himself as a creator precisely in drawing.
Dürer tirelessly practiced arrangement, generalization of particulars, and construction of space. His animalistic and botanical drawings are distinguished by high skill in execution, observation, and fidelity to the rendering of natural forms, characteristic of a naturalist scientist. Most of them are carefully worked out and represent complete works, however, according to the custom of artists of that time, they served as auxiliary material: Dürer used all his studies in engravings and paintings, repeatedly repeating the motifs of graphic works in large works. At the same time, G. Wölfflin noted that Dürer transferred almost nothing of the truly innovative discoveries he made in landscape watercolors to his paintings.
Dürer's graphics were made using various materials; he often used them in combination. He became one of the first German artists to work with a white brush on colored paper, popularizing this Italian tradition.
Bibliography
- Bartrum D. Durer / Trans. from English - M.: Niola-Press, 2010. - 96 p. - (From the collection of the British Museum). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-366-00421-3.
- Benoit A. History of painting of all times and peoples. - St. Petersburg: Publishing House "Neva", 2002. - T. 1. - P. 297-314. - 544 p. - ISBN 5-7654-1889-9.
- Berger J. Durer. - M.: Art-Rodnik, 2008. - 96 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-88896-097-4.
- Albrecht Durer. Engravings / Prev. A. Bore, approx. A. Bore and S. Bon, trans. from fr. A. Zolotov. - M.: Magma LLC, 2008. - 560 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-593428-054-4.
- Brion M. Durer. - M.: Young Guard, 2006. - (Life of wonderful people).
- Zuffi S. Large atlas of painting. Fine art 1000 years / Scientific editor S. I. Kozlova. - M.: OLMA-PRESS, 2002. - P. 106-107. - ISBN 5-224-03922-3.
- Durus A. The heretic Albrecht Durer and three “godless artists” // Art: magazine. - 1937. - No. 1.
- Zarnitsky S. Durer. - M.: Young Guard, 1984. - (Life of wonderful people).
- Nemirovsky E. The World of Books. From ancient times to the beginning of the 20th century / Reviewers A. A. Govorov, E. A. Dinerstein, V. G. Utkov. - M.: Book, 1986. - 50,000 copies.
- Lvov S. Albrecht Durer. - M.: Art, 1984. - (Life in art).
- Liebmann M. Durer and his era. - M.: Art, 1972.
- Koroleva A. Durer. - M.: Olma Press, 2007. - 128 p. - (Gallery of geniuses). - ISBN 5-373-00880-X.
- Matvievskaya G. Albrecht Durer - scientist. 1471-1528 / Rep. ed. Ph.D. physics and mathematics Science Yu. A. Bely; Reviewers: acad. Academy of Sciences of the UzSSR V. P. Shcheglov, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics. Sciences B.A.
- Rosenfeld; Academy of Sciences of the USSR. - M.: Nauka, 1987. - 240, p. - (Scientific and biographical literature). - 34,000 copies. (in translation)
- Nevezhina V. Nuremberg engravers of the 16th century. - M., 1929.
- Nesselstrauss Ts. Literary heritage of Durer // Durer A. Treatises. Diaries. Letters / Translation by Nesselstrauss Ts.. - M.: Art, 1957. - T. 1.
- Nesselstrauss Ts. Drawings by Durer. - M.: Art, 1966. - 160 p. - 12,000 copies.
- Nesselstrauss Z. Durer. - M.: Art, 1961.
- Norbert W. Durer. - M.: Art-Rodnik, 2008. - 96 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9794-0107-2.
- Sidorov A. Durer. - Izogiz, 1937.
- Chernienko I. Germany at the turn of the XV-XVI centuries: the era and its vision in the work of Albrecht Durer: abstract of the dissertation for the degree of candidate of historical sciences: 07.00.03. - Perm, 2004.
Albrecht Durer - famous German artist, painter, graphic artist, engraver. Born in 1471 in Nuremberg - died in 1528. He is a world-recognized artist, woodcut master and the greatest master of the Western European Renaissance. This artist is one of the most mysterious artists with an unusual view of art and worldview. Examining his work, one can see that Durer was an adherent of the Italian Renaissance and invested a lot of medieval mysticism in his works. In addition to religious, mythical and mystical paintings, he painted portraits and self-portraits. A special place in his art can be given to engravings, which can be found in the publication.
Albrecht Dürer studied painting first from his own father, then from the painter from his hometown, Michael Wolgemut. In order to receive the Title of Master, he embarked on years of wandering, which was a necessary condition. Over the course of four years, he visited Basel, Colmar and Strasbourg, where he studied the intricacies of fine art and improved his knowledge. During a trip to Italy he created his first serious paintings- a series of landscapes. Here you can already feel the hand of a professional artist - clarity of composition, clearly thought out plan, even mood. In these works one can already see the hand and unique handwriting of Dürer. It is also worth mentioning that Dürer was the first in Germany to study the nude. He often resorts to depicting ideal proportions, which he showed in the painting “Adam and Eve.”
In 1495, Albrecht Dürer created his own workshop, and this was the beginning of his independent work. He was assisted by several artists and engravers: Anton Koberger, Hans Scheufelein, Hans von Kulmbach and Hans Baldung Green. In the Netherlands, the great artist fell victim to an unknown disease. This disease tormented him for the rest of his life. One story is connected with this: an unknown disease was accompanied by an enlargement of the spleen, and so, when he sent a letter to the doctor describing the symptoms, he included a drawing of himself, where he pointed to the spleen and signed “Where is the yellow spot and what I point my finger at, It hurts there." Just before his death, Dürer was preparing for publication his treatise on proportions for artists, but on April 6, 1528, he died and was buried in the John's cemetery in Nuremberg, where his grave remains to this day.
If you want to use the best technologies and achievements of civilization in interior design, then sliding glass doors should be a natural choice for you. The Stekloprofil company in St. Petersburg offers products of the highest quality.
Ecce Homo (Son of Man)
Self-portrait of Dürer in his mature years
Adam and Eve
Paumgartner Altar
04/10/2017 at 17:26 · Pavlofox · 17 840
The most famous paintings of Albrecht Durer
Albrecht Dürer was born into a large family of a jeweler; he had seventeen brothers and sisters. In the 15th century, the profession of a goldsmith was considered very respectful, so the father tried to teach his children the craft in which he practiced. But Albrecht’s talent for art manifested itself at a fairly early age, and his father did not dissuade him; on the contrary, at the age of 15 he sent his son to the famous Nuremberg master Michael Wolgemut. After 4 years of studying with the master, Dürer went to travel and at the same time painted his first independent painting, “Portrait of the Father.” During his travels, he honed his skills with different masters in different cities. Let's consider the most famous paintings of Albrecht Durer, recognized by the international community.
10.
This painting by Dürer caused a lot of condemnation, both from the artist’s contemporaries and from modern art critics. It's all about the pose in which the author drew himself and the hidden message conveyed through the details. At the time of the artist, only saints could be painted in frontal view or close to it. The holly in the artist’s hand is a reference to the crown of thorns, which was placed on the head of Christ at the crucifixion. The inscription at the top of the canvas reads “My affairs are determined from above,” this is a reference to the author’s devotion to God, and that all his achievements at this stage of life are with the blessing of God. This painting, stored in the Louvre, is assessed as having made certain changes in the human worldview.
9.
With age, Dürer went even further in reflecting his experiences on canvas. For this impudence, his contemporaries harshly criticized the artist. On this canvas he painted his self-portrait from the front. Whereas even more recognized contemporaries could not afford such audacity. In the portrait, the author looks strictly ahead and holds his hand in the middle of his chest, which is typical for reflections of Christ. Ill-wishers found all the similarities in Durer’s painting and reproached him for comparing himself with Christ. Looking at the picture, some may agree with the critics, while others may see something more. There are no objects that attract attention in the picture, which forces the viewer to focus on the image of a person. Those who have seen the picture consider the range of feelings on the face and image of the person depicted.
8.
The portrait, painted in 1505, is considered a Venetian-inspired work by Dürer. It was during this period that he stayed in Venice for the second time and honed his skills with Giovanni Bellini, with whom he eventually became friends. It is not known who is depicted in the portrait; some suggest that it is a Venetian courtesan. Since there is no information about the artist’s marriage, there are no other versions about the person who posed. The painting is kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
7.
The painting was commissioned by Dürer's patron for the Church of All Saints in Wittenberg. Because of the presence in the church of the relics of some of the ten thousand martyrs. The religious story familiar to many believers, about the beating of Christian soldiers on Mount Ararat, is reflected in every detail. In the center of the composition, the author drew himself with a flag on which he wrote the time of writing and the author of the painting. Next to him is painted Dürer’s friend, the humanist Konrad Celtis, who died before the painting was completed.
6.
Durer's most recognizable painting was painted for the Church of San Bartolomeo in Italy. The artist painted this picture for several years. The picture is full of bright colors, as this trend was becoming popular at that time. The painting is named so because of the subject reflected in it, Dominican monks who used rosaries in their prayers. In the center of the picture is the Virgin Mary with the baby Christ in her arms. Surrounded by worshippers, including Pope Julian the Second and Emperor Maximilian the First. Child - Jesus distributes wreaths of roses to everyone. Dominican monks used rosaries of strictly white and red colors. White symbolizes the joy of the Virgin Mary, red the blood of Christ at the crucifixion.
5.
Another very famous painting by Durer was copied many times, printed on postcards, stamps and even coins. The history of the painting is striking in its symbolism. The canvas depicts not just the hand of a pious man, but Dürer’s brother. Even in childhood, the brothers agreed to take turns painting, since fame and wealth from this craft do not come immediately and not to everyone, one of the brothers had to ensure the existence of the other. Albrecht was the first to take up painting, and when it was his brother’s turn, his hands had already become unaccustomed to painting, he could not paint. But Albrecht's brother was a pious and humble man, he was not upset with his brother. These hands are reflected in the picture.
4.
Dürer depicted his patron several times in different paintings, but the portrait of Maximilian the First became one of the world-famous paintings. The emperor is depicted, as befits monarchs, with rich robes, an arrogant look, and the picture reeks of arrogance. As in other paintings by the artist, there is a peculiar symbol. The Emperor holds in his hand a pomegranate, a symbol of abundance and immortality. A hint that it is he who provides the people with prosperity and fertility. The grains visible on a peeled piece of pomegranate are a symbol of the versatility of the emperor’s personality.
3.
This engraving by Durer symbolizes a person's path through life. A knight dressed in armor is a man protected by his faith from temptation. Death walking nearby is depicted with an hourglass in his hands, indicating the outcome at the end of the allotted time. The devil walks behind the knight, depicted as some kind of pitiful creature, but ready to attack him at the slightest opportunity. It all comes down to the eternal struggle between good and evil, strength of spirit in the face of temptation.
2.
Durer's most famous engraving of his 15 works on the theme of the Biblical apocalypse. The four horsemen are Victory, War, Famine and Death. The hell that follows them is depicted in the engraving in the form of a beast with an open mouth. As in the legend, the horsemen rush, sweeping away everyone in their path, both poor and rich, kings and ordinary people. A reference to the fact that everyone will receive what they deserve, and everyone will answer for their sins.
1.
The painting was painted during Dürer's return from Italy. The painting intertwines German attention to detail and the colorfulness and brightness of colors characteristic of the Italian Renaissance. The attention to lines, mechanical subtleties and details makes reference to the sketches of Leonardo Da Vinci. In this world-famous painting, the scene described in sufficient detail in Biblical tales, transferred in paint to canvas, leaves the impression that this is exactly how it happened.
What else to see:
