Albrecht Dürer

Printer and artist
Albrecht Dürer, a native of Nürnberg and the son of a goldsmith, was the greatest of the German artists who worked in the period leading up to the Reformation. Dürer was also a consummate businessman who took full advantage of the print medium, selling his prints throughout Europe.

Durer was first apprenticed in his father’s shop but the artistic talent he shown prompted his father in 1486 to apprentice him in the workshop of famous painter and printmaker Michael Wolgemut. By this time Nürnberg was already a center of printing, and Dürer will only make it more so. After his apprenticeship ended in 1490, he traveled on traditional Wanderjahre (the journeyman years), which included traveling and learning by working under different master of trade in different cities. He returned to Nürnberg in 1494, but the outbreak of plague made him leave the town for a visit to Venice.

He returned to Nürnberg in 1495, started a career as printmaker and painter and was immediately successful. In 1496 he received commissions for paintings from Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. In 1498 Dürer published his woodcut series, the Apocalypse, which made him famous throughout Europe. Another plague outbreak in 1505 set him to his second visit to Italy. By now he was a well-known artist and during his visit to Venice was even involved in court case to protect his work from being copied. During his stay in Venice he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for the German merchants in Venice, the Rosenkrantz Madonna. He also visited other major Italian centers such as Bologna, Florence, and Rome where he met with the greatest Italian artist of the day. On his trips Dürer had with him his prints, and his success in selling them made him a wealthy man.

Dürer’s fame attracted the attention of the Emperor Maximilian I (r. 1486 – 1519) who had visited Nürnberg in February, 1512, and subsequently gave Dürer several commissions.

Dürer died on 6 April 1528 and was buried in the churchyard of Johanniskirchhof in Nürnberg.