When one thinks of the Renaissance, usually what comes to mind is the Italians or Italy, where artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and Raffaello Sanzio trained, studied, and worked. These artists are based mainly in Southern Europe of course, but what about Northern European countries like Germany? What were the Germans up to and how did this new way of thinking as well as new use of techniques and tools spread up there, to Germany, and other countries? It is believed by many that Albrecht Durer was the main catalyst and one of the most important contributors for the Northern Renaissance. Many artists visited Italy at the time of the Italian Renassaince, but Durer seemed to be someone who completely embraced the ideas that were being introduced and instantly started incorporating techniques and ideas in to his work. His passion for the rebirth of the arts and his craft in general made him one of the greatest, most notable artists of his period.
Durer was a German artist with many talents including printmaking, painting, engraving, and goldsmithing. He was born in Germany on May 21st, 1471 to his father, who was a goldsmith. In turn, Durer was taught the ways of metal working as an early teenager. However, though his metal work was indeed good, he would later be known for his wood carving prints and paintings more so than his metal work. Around the age of fifteen, his father saw that Durer was particularly good at drawing compared to his metal work. Even though he would have rather seen his son continue working as a goldsmith, he let Durer fall into apprenticeship under Michael Wolgemut, a German painter and printmaker, to develop these skills he saw in his son. Soon after this apprenticeship, Dur...
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• MacPhail, Catherine. Nemesis: into the Shadows. London: Bloomsbury, 2006. Print.
• "Albrecht Dürer: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (19.73.209) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Home. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. .
• "Albrecht Dürer: Adam and Eve (19.73.1) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Home. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. .
• "Self Portrait, Albrecht Durer." Fine Art Prints on Canvas,Giclee Reproductions by Illusions Gallery. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. .
Albrecht Durer-Self Portrait at Age 28: This self-portrait was painted in 1500 shortly afore Durer’s 29th day of inchoation. In the painting Durer is visually perceived in a Christ like pose where he directly faces the viewer. Traditionally at the time this particular pose was reserved for portraits of Christ and typically artists would surmise a three quarters pose with the artist conventionally facing the right of the viewer. Durer’s visible hand is perhaps one of the most striking components of the painting, the placement can be thought of as pointing to the sacred heart of Christ. It should withal be noted that the placement of the fingers can be optically discerned as an “A” and a “D” betokening Albrecht Durer or Anno Domini. The set of Durer’s oc...
Durer based the figure of Adam from the Appolo Belvedere sculpture from the Classic Antiquity. Measurements were taken by Durer so, that he could create Adam to resemble the Appolo Belvedere.
"Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?)." Jan Van Eyck. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
Albrecht Durer completed the “Master Engravings” in the years 1513 and 1514. With these three engravings (Knight, Death, and Devil, St. Jerome in His Study, and Melencolia I) he reached the high point of his artistic expression and concentration. each print represents a different philosophical perspective on the “worlds” respectively of action, spirit, and intellect. Although Durer himself evidently did not think of the three as a set, He sometimes sold or gave St. Jerome and Melencolia I as a pair.
The Renaissance Period is widely known for the abundance of amazing portraiture that circulated around Europe. During the Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer, a German artist painted a self-portrait in 1500 that had qualities that differed from the usual style of artist in that time (Chauhan). Jean Clouet also painted a portrait for the King of France and became the official court painter. Both artists had a talent for portraiture, while their styles were quite different. King Francis I wanted to be seen as a powerful man, and appointed Clouet to paint him in a classically renaissance way that highlights his wealth and authority. Dürer, described as a cocky, self-centered man, painted himself in a light that is unique and puts him on a ‘holy’ pedestal (Stokstad 356). In this essay I will show how although both paintings have clear differences with their style, both men in the compositions are conveyed in a great and very powerful sense.
Morley, Brian. "The Illustrations of Leonardo Da Vinci." Burlington Magazine 121.918 (979): 553-562. Web. 26 May 2010.
Goldwater, Robert and Marco Treves (eds.). Artists on Art: from the XIV to the XX Century. New York: Pantheon Books, 1945.
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Home. 2004. Accessed October 27, 2011. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/duch/hd_duch.htm.
Maurits Cornelis Escher was born on June 17,1898, in Leeuwarden, the capital of the province of Friesland, located in the northern Netherlands (Locher, 7). He spent the majority of his youth in the town of Arnhem, where he attended a public high school. There, he was encouraged by the drawing teacher, F.W. van der Haagen, who early on recognized Escher’s propensity for becoming an artist. After having completed secondary school, Escher followed his father’s advice and enrolled in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem. Here, another faculty member...
Koerner, Joseph L. The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press, 1993. 25-28.
The renaissance is one of the most culturally, religiously, and artistically inventive periods in the history of mankind. From giant sculptures carved to perfection to literary works of art that induced deep thinking, the renaissance demonstrated that man’s view of itself was expeditiously becoming refined. Many of the most influential people in history, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, and Dante lived during the time of the great reinvention of Italian society. The renaissance altered the way education, art, and innovation were perceived and forever changed the thinking of the common man.
Murray, Peter, and Linda Murray. The art of the Renaissance. New York: Praeger, 1963. Print.
Janson, Harry W. History of Art. 5th Ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995. Print.
Artist and Humanist, Albrecht Durer is one of the most significant figures in the history f European art outside Italy during the Renaissance (Gowing 195). Portraying the questioning spirit of the Renaissance, Durer's conviction that he must examine and explore his own situation through capturing the very essence of his role as artist and creator, is reflected in the Self-portrait in a Fur Collared Robe (Strieder 10).
A leader in the renewed attempt of art as science was Hippolyte Taine, who proposed that styles of art should be studied in the same way as plants are studied by botanists, and are subject to the same evolutionary development. At the same time in Germany, the name Kunstwissenschaft was applied to the historical writings of Semper, Fiedler, Burckhardt, and Riegl. In their writings, they strove for neutrality in comparative analysis i...