Albrecht Durer was a 15th-16th century German artist and printmaker who was a key figure in the Northern Renaissance. He modernized European art with his innovative prints and mastery of perspective and proportion in his paintings. Durer influenced art, mathematics, fortification techniques, and the adoption of Lutheranism in Nuremberg. He was renowned across Europe for his skill and made major contributions to art theory through his written works.

1. Albrecht Durer
the man who modernized
arts

2. Who is Albrecht Durer?
Albrecht Durer is the greatest exponent of
Northern European Renaissance art. While an
important painter, in his own day Durer was renowned
foremost for his graphic works. Artists across Europe
admired and copied Durer's innovative and powerful
prints, ranging from religious and mythological
scenes, to maps and exotic animals. Durer was a
humanist and a creator. His awareness of his own
role as an artist is apparent in his frontal, Christ-like
Self Portrait, 1500, just one of many self portraits that
he painted in his career. More than simply producing
works for his own time, Durer saw his fame and his
contribution as enduring, and as part of history.

3. What has Albrecht Durer
done?
He influenced
European art
Theory of Art
Mathematics
Art of fortification
Adoption of
Lutheranism
in Nuremberg

4. Durer’s biography
Albrecht Durer was the third son of
Albrecht Durer and Barbara Holfer. He was
one of their eighteen children.
Portrait Diptych
of Durer's
Parents (1490)

5. Albrecht Durer was born on May 21st
1471 in Imperial Free City of Nuremberg.
At the age of fifteen Durer was
apprenticed to the principal painter
of the town, Michael Wolgemut, a
prolific if undistinguished producer
of small works in the late Gothic
style. Durer learned not only
painting but also wood carving and
elementary copper engraving under
Wolgemut. At the end of his
apprenticeship in 1490 he travelled
(Wanderjahre). He practiced in
Colmar, Basel and in the Low
Countries (Holland) before he
returned to Nuremberg. From this
period, little of the work that can be
attributed to him with certainty
survives.
Portrait of the Artist
Holding a Thistle
(1493)

6. On July 9, 1494 Durer
was married, according
to an arrangement made
during his absence, to
Agnes Frey, the daughter
of a local merchant. His
relationship with his wife
is unclear and her
reputation has suffered
from a posthumous
assault by Durer's
friends. He did not
remain in Nuremberg
long; in the autumn of
1494 he travelled to Italy,
Agnes Durer
(1494)

7. More than any other Northern
European artist, Durer was
engaged by the artistic
practices and theoretical
interests of Italy. He visited the
country twice, from 1494 to
1495 and again from 1505 to
1507, absorbing firsthand
some of the great works of the
Italian Renaissance, as well as
the classical heritage and
theoretical writings of the
region. The influence
of Venetian color and design
can be seen in the Feast of

8. Durer was back in
Nuremberg by mid-1507.
He remained in Germany
until 1520. His reputation
spread all over Europe. He
was on terms of friendship
or friendly communication
with all the masters of the
age, and Raphael held
himself honored in
exchanging drawings with
Durer.
Durer lived and worked in this house from 1509
to 1528. Now it’s a museum

9. Durer's
talent, ambition, and
sharp, wide-ranging
intellect earned him the
attention and friendship
of some of the most
prominent figures in
German society. He
became official court
artist to Holy Roman
Emperors Maximilian I
and his successor
Charles V, for whom
Durer designed and
helped execute a range
Emperor Maximilian
(1518)

10. After another journey to the
Netherlands Durer finally returned
home in July 1521, having caught an
undetermined illness which afflicted
him for the rest of his life.
Back in Nuremberg he began work on
a series of religious pictures. Many
preliminary sketches and studies
survive, but no paintings on the grand
scale were ever carried out. This was
due in part to his declining health, but
more because of the time he gave to
the preparation of his theoretical works
on geometry and
perspective, proportion and
fortification.

11. Durer’s influence on the European
artDurer developed a new
interest in the human
form, as demonstrated by
his nude and antique
studies. He was also one of
the first artists to depict
animals “photorealistically”.
“As I grew older, I realized
that it was much better to
insist on the genuine forms of
nature, for simplicity is the
greatest adornment of art”
Albrecht Durer

12. Durer’s influence on theory of art
He wrote Four Books of Human
Proportion (Vier Bücher von
menschlichen Proportion), only
the first of which was published
during his lifetime (1528), as
well as an introductory manual
of geometric theory for
students (Underweysung der
Messung, 1525), which
includes the first scientific
treatment of perspective by a
Northern European artist.

13. Durer’s influence on
mathematicsDescriptive geometry originated
with Durer in his introductory
manual of geometric theory for
students although it was only put
on a sound mathematical basis in
later works of mathematicians.
One of the methods of
overcoming the problems of
projection, and describing the
movement of bodies in space, is
descriptive geometry. Durer's
remarkable achievement was
through applying mathematics to
art, he developed such
fundamentally new and
important ideas within
mathematics itself.

14. Durer’s influence on the art of
fortification
In 1527 Durer published
another work, this time
on fortifications. There
were strong reasons why
he produced a work on
fortifications at this time,
for the people of
Germany were in fear of
an invasion by the Turks.
Many cities, including
Nuremberg, would
improve their
fortifications using the
methods set out by Durer
in this book.

15. Durer’s influence on the adoption of
Lutheranism in Nuremberg
In Nuremberg, a vibrant center of
humanism and one of the first to
officially embrace the principles of
the Reformation, Durer had access
to some of Europe's outstanding
theologians and scholars, including
Erasmus, Philipp Melanchthon, and
Willibald Pirkheimer, each captured
by the artist in shrewd portraits.
For Nuremberg's town hall, the
artist painted two panels of the
Four Apostles (1526), bearing texts
in Martin Luther's translation that
pay tribute to the city's adoption of
Lutheranism.

16. Durer’s art is so multifarious! Explore it!

17. This all is DURER

18. Resources used
• http://www.albrecht-durer.org/biography.html
• http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/durr/hd_durr.htm
• http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Durer.html
• http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/durer_albrecht.html
• http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/albrecht_durer.html
• http://meganandvince.blogspot.ru/2011/03/nuremberg-bavarian-
secret-to-pass-on.html