Germany’s greatest painter—Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was born in Nuremberg, a German painter, printmaker and woodblock print designer.

Dürer's oeuvre includes woodcuts and other engravings, paintings, sketches, and drawings. Among his works, printmaking is the most influential. He was one of the finest woodcut and etching artists. His watercolor landscapes are among his greatest achievements, and their atmosphere and emotion are extremely vivid.

His major works include "Revelation", "The Great Passion of Christ", "The Little Passion", "Praying Hands", "Men's Bathroom", "Sea Monster", "The Libertine", "The Great Fate," "Adam and Eve," and "Knights, Death and Demons," among others.

The Germans used the papermaking revolution to introduce movable type, but the Italians used their artistic talents and ability to manufacture luxury goods to catch up and regain the dominance.

Dürer was so lucky to be able to develop his talent in the best of times.

He studied art with his father when he was a boy. He showed special talent for painting. He was able to paint his own portrait realistically at the age of 13. The portrait he painted for his father at the age of 19 fully demonstrated his maturity. His sketching skills are comparable to those of Leonardo da Vinci. Later he worked for three years with the painter Michaaeel Wolgemut. Wagelmut's large workshop also produced woodcut illustrations for Dürer's godfather, the printer and publisher Anton Koberger. At that time, this largest factory had a great influence on Dürer. He was first exposed to copper techniques as a child. This lasting impression played a decisive role in his later creativity in printmaking art.

After completing his apprenticeship, the young painter walked out of the studio and traveled along the Rhine River to major industrial cities in Germany, including Frankfurt, Cologne and Basel. The four years of travel study and investigation played a decisive role in the formation of the painter's world view and artistic development. The 23-year-old Dürer was already an influential artist. In this year, he married Aglissa Fresny, the daughter of a musician in his hometown. After that, Dürer worked as a jeweler and painter. Started working independently.

In 1485, when German education was on the eve of imminent reform under the influence of humanism, Dürer entered a public primary school in Nuremberg. According to his family's tradition, his father allowed his son to be an apprentice in his own workshop, hoping to train him to become a jewelry worker. Dürer first received painting training in the workshop and quickly mastered it, which became the basis for his artistic activities. In order to learn the decorative arts necessary for jewelry craftsmanship, Dürer further began to copy the figure paintings of artists, and also He copied the sculptures of Martin Sonnguer, etc., which created the conditions for him to want to be an artist. Dürer carved his first self-portrait with a silver needle at the age of thirteen, and wrote on the painting: "When I was a child in 1484, I drew myself looking in the mirror." His pen drawings the following year "Virgin Mary on the Throne with Angels" is one of the second earliest paintings and is stored to this day.

In the process of learning painting, Dürer was very interested in the structure of figures and the rules of painting. Therefore, he asked his father to allow him to become a painter. His father complied with his son's wish and sent him to the studio of the painter Michael Wargemot near Nuremberg. The contract stipulated that he would serve as an apprentice for three years. Dürer copied his teacher's works and gradually learned a variety of painting techniques. He began to study nature, the human body and plants as objects, and began to try to create. At the same time, he also carefully studied the blending and application of colors, so that when his apprenticeship expired, he would be able to create in accordance with the laws of art. After the 23-year-old Dürer got married and started a business, he formally established a studio not far from home and began painting portraits.

Later, Dürer completed his first great masterpiece, the woodcut series of "Revelation". This apocalypse originated from the mystical fantasy of the old Christianity of the Nero dynasty of the Roman Empire. He produced a set of fifteen immortal works, which express the helpless terror and disappointment that mankind felt at the end of the fifteenth century due to the arrival of the end of the world. At that time, Germany was in the midst of a struggle between the bourgeoisie and craftsmen, a struggle between peasants and feudal lords, a struggle between hunger and exploitation. The passionate emotions of the people finally developed into countless religious, political and revolutionary mass movements. . Dürer wanted to imbue the fantasies in Revelation with realistic images and give these fantasies allegorical power. Several of the paintings openly criticized the ruling forces. He left his opinions to everyone's conscience.

Since the publication of "Apocalypse", Dürer has been listed among the glorious ranks of contemporary great artists. Frederick invited him to paint a second altarpiece.

In 1498, Dürer painted a self-portrait in luxurious clothes with abundant energy and the confidence of his newfound fame (existing in the Prado Gallery in Madrid).

On March 19, 1514, two months before his mother died, Dürer drew a portrait of his mother. In this charcoal painting, he created the most lively and moving portrait in his life. This is the only portrait of Dürer's mother that has been handed down to this day.

After his mother passed away on May 17, 1514, he inscribed a few words on the painting: "This is the mother of Albrecht Dürer. She died at 2 o'clock on the Tuesday night before the Prayer Week in 1514. 63 years old. "It shows his lifelong respect and love for his mother.

From 1490 to 1507, he traveled to Basel, Strasbourg, Venice and other places, and met with Giovanni Bellini, whom he had admired for a long time. Not only did he strive to strengthen his artistic knowledge, but he also began to study mathematics, geometry, Latin, classical literature, etc. His contacts with scholars were more frequent and closer than with artists.

In 1512, he became the royal painter of Emperor Maximilian. Later, he traveled to Antwerp, Brussels, Malian, Cologne, Midburg, Bruges and Ghent, where he was well received.

When he returned to his hometown in July 1521, his health deteriorated, but he continued to write until his death.

As Germany's greatest painter, Dürer's artistic exploration had a profound impact on Germany. As someone commented, "Dürer is the representative national painter of Germany. He was also the artistic founder who brought Italian Renaissance thought to Germany and created a new era of German national art." Engels also spoke highly of him , and regarded him and Leonardo da Vinci as giants produced in an era that needed giants.

Dürer is a representative figure of the Northern Renaissance. At that time, Germany was in the darkest period in its history, with very confused thoughts and beliefs. Famine and plague (the Black Death) ruthlessly claimed the lives of large numbers of people. The intensification of social conflicts has weakened German culture and art, leaving it in a serious downturn. At the same time, European countries, led by Italy, have stepped out of the Middle Ages and entered a period of political, economic and cultural openness and prosperity. The glory of humanism has illuminated the European continent. Therefore, as a German artist, Dürer could only pursue and spread the advanced ideas of "modern" Europe in a country that represented the backwardness of the past.

This talented young man is ready to single-handedly introduce modern culture to Germany. However, his curious and doubtful eyes and Christ-like pointing fingers show that unlike the Italian Renaissance's joyful view of the world between people, and the Dutch Renaissance's stubborn attention to the external world, the German Renaissance The Renaissance will look bitterly at man himself. This would make him a contradictory loner and avant-garde.

As a Renaissance man, Dürer believed that artists must look deeply into nature and strive to discover the secrets of the universe in order to reveal and express beauty. But at the same time, he maintained his semi-medieval belief that artists, along with their art, should be God's instruments.

When Michelangelo showed the perfection and rebirth of man with the statue of David (1501-1504), Dürer used the same superb technique to create the etching "Saint Eustace" (1501) , showing the martyr's encounter with the miracle as if it were a paradise on earth. However, his representative work of that period was the "Apocalypse" woodcut series created earlier, which has more obvious characteristics of Gothic didactic small portraits in content and expression style.

Like Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer also had a scientific mind, so he studied mathematics and perspective and wrote a large number of notes and treatises. In terms of perspective and human anatomy, he created There are many paintings that reflect social reality. He also studied architecture and invented an architectural system. Dürer was also an art theorist and author of "Introduction to Painting" and "Principles of Human Anatomy". He freed German art from the influence and constraints of Gothic art and moved towards the path of realist art guided by humanistic ideas. He pushed the then naive printmaking art to a new stage of perfection.

He supported the religious reform movement at that time and sympathized with the Peasants' War. He once took the initiative to draw illustrations for the pamphlets of Martin Luther, the leader of the religious reform movement, and ended his own career with the design of the Peasants' War Monument. creative path.

The accuracy of his sketches of animals and plants can be compared with those left by Leonardo da Vinci, but at the same time, he has no doubt about the existence of various monsters recorded in the "Apocalypse". Therefore, Dürer was not only a painter, but also a sculptor, alchemist, mathematician, mechanic, art theorist, philosopher, mystic, anatomist, and architect. He once founded the theory of city building.

He traveled continuously throughout his life. His breadth of footprints and breadth of vision were almost unparalleled by anyone at the time, but he always retained some peasant-like ignorance and narrow-mindedness. He believed that reason and knowledge would make people a noble being, but he also had a deep awareness of human imperfections.

He was born in a medieval craftsman family and lived in a country where artists had the lowest status, but he became the most independent and proud artist in Europe at that time. As the "father of self-portrait", he was the first painter in Europe to be absorbed by his own appearance and identity, thus becoming the forerunner of Rembrandt. It rivals Rembrandt's self-portraits in verisimilitude and power of artistic expression.

He had somewhat realized that art would make him immortal, but he was pursued by the thought of impending death throughout his life and could not get rid of the fear caused by the disappearance of his body.

As far as artistic style is concerned, although he is a pursuer and disseminator of Italian Renaissance art, the German tradition in which he was exposed has allowed his art to retain a bit of medieval Gothic legacy. At the same time, it is surprisingly the first to show some Baroque characteristics.

At the end of 1523, Dürer began to write an autobiography. He not only reviewed his own life, but also described his parents, his seventeen brothers and sisters, and his own life experiences. At that time, only one of his brothers was left alive.

In 1525, Dürer's important work "Lectures on the Art of Measurement" was published. Therefore, he ranks among the first-class art theorists of the Renaissance.

1526 was the year when Dürer created outstanding portraits, such as "Ismas van Rotterdam", which became his greatest masterpiece.

In 1527, Dürer's second scientific work "Principles of Fortification" was published.

In 1528, "Principles of Human Anatomy" was completed, which was the culmination of his twenty-seven years of research on human anatomy. Unfortunately, he did not see the huge impact of this work. The fifty-seven-year-old Dürer, after returning from the Netherlands, was physically weak and suffered from repeated illnesses. This brilliant cultural star suddenly died on April 6, 1528.