Albrecht Durer
b.May 21, 1471, Imperial Free City of Nernberg [Germany]
d.April 6, 1528, Nernberg
Albrecht Durer (May 21, 1471 ?C April 6, 1528) was a German painter, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg. His still-famous works include the Apocalypse woodcuts, Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the subject of extensive analysis and interpretation. His watercolours mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium. D??rer introduction of classical motifs into Northern art, through his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists, have secured his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance. This is reinforced by his theoretical treatise which involve principles of mathematics, perspective and ideal proportions.
His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Renaissance in Northern Europe ever since.
ID: 63738 Self-Portrait in a Fur-Collared Robe 1500 Oil on lime panel, 67,1 x 48,7 cm Alte Pinakothek, Munich The last of D?rer's three magnificent self-portraits was painted early in 1500, before his 29th birthday on 21 May. The picture is proudly inscribed: `Thus I, Albrecht D?rer from Nuremburg, painted myself with indelible colours at the age of 28 years.' It is a sombre image, painted primarily in browns, set against a plain dark background. The face is striking for its resemblance to the head of Christ. In late medieval art, Jesus was traditionally presented in this manner, looking straight ahead in a symmetrical pose. Christ's brown hair in these images is parted towards the middle and falls over the shoulders. For the first and last time in Western art history, an artist was to portray himself in a Christ-like scheme. Given his idealized appearance as the underdrawing shows, his nose was originally irregular in shape - D?rer is approaching us in "imitatio Christi", in imitation of Christ. He has a short beard and moustache. D?rer has even painted himself with brown hair, although the other self-portraits show that it was actually reddish-blond. D?rer deliberately set out to create a Christ-like image, with his hand raised to his chest almost in a pose of blessing. But this was no gesture of arrogance or blasphemy. It was a statement of faith: Christ was the son of God and God had created Man. For D?rer, the painting was an acknowledgment that artistic skills were a God-given talent. However, D?rer has subtly departed from the traditional image of Christ in his self-portrait. Despite initial appearances, the picture is not quite symmetrical. The head lies just off the centre of the panel to the right and the parting of the hair is not exactly in the middle, with the strands of hair falling a little differently on the two sides. The eyes stare slightly towards the left of the panel. D?rer also wears contemporary clothing, a fashionable fur-lined mantle. The result is a highly personal image, one whose `indelible colours' still influence the way we imagine D?rer looked in his later years. The deceptive illusionism in which the picture is painted is also, however, a reference to the classical artistic legend about Apelles, with whom he had been compared by contemporary humanists.Artist:D?RER, Albrecht Title: Self-Portrait in a Fur-Collared Robe Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : portrait
