Albrecht Durer: Northern Renaissance German 1471-1528

Albrecht Durer Northern Renaissance German 1471-1528

• Durer was the leader of the German High Renaissance. • Durer was an admirer of the Italian Renaissance and was one of the first artists to travel to Italy to study Italian art.

• Durer was the first artist to paint a selfportrait. • He painted a series of self-portraits over his career to document his life. • Durer also signed and dated his artwork which was unusual at the time.

• Durer believed that sight was our greatest sense and through looking, truth is revealed. • Durer was a master of oil paint and watercolor. Watercolor at the time was used mainly for preliminary sketches that were often discarded. • Durer had a great love for animals and often used them in his art work.

• While Durer was a great painter, he is more well known for his printmaking. • He was one of the first artist of the Western world to use woodcut as a major medium. • Durer’s woodcuts were very well crafted with very fine lines which give the appearance of being a pen and ink drawing.

• Durer also worked with copper engravings. • Because many prints can be made of the same image, Durer was able to sell them at more modest prices than his paintings. • This allowed him to become a wealthy artist and honored citizen in his home town of Nuremberg.

• Many of Durer’s prints deal with religious stories. • Durer’s most famous prints came from a series illustrating the Apocalypse, The Book of Revelation in the Bible.