Albrecht Dürer, Saint Jerome, 1521. Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon © Instituto Portugues de Museus, Minstero da Cultura, Lisbon.
The second part of our two-morning short course by art historian Clare Ford-Wille will aim to put Dürer’s travels into the context of his career as a whole, and to discuss the importance of the drawings and paintings included in the major exhibition Dürer's Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist at the National Gallery.
Study Morning II - Includes two lectures, Q&A and a coffee break. Tickets £20
Lecture three: The Return to Nuremburg 1507-20
The importance in Europe of the city of Nuremberg cannot be overstated. Not only a sizeable trading city with a population of 30,000, it was, together with Augsburg and Basel, a formidable centre of printing. One of the most important printer-publishers was Anton Koberger who had published the renowned Nuremburg Chronicle comprising 1,809 woodcut illustrations, in 1493, in both Latin and German editions. The city was governed by an oligarchy, helped by the Lesser Council, to which a Greater Council was subject. Artists were not allowed to participate so they decided to establish an elite ‘club’ of their own, the ‘Herrentrinkstube’.
This lecture will discuss Dürer’s activities and his prolific artistic and influential contribution in painting, watercolours, and the graphic innovations of engraving, etching and woodcut, in the context of this vibrant and extraordinary city, forever linked with Dürer’s great talent.
Coffee break (15 mins)
Lecture four: The Journey to The Netherlands July 1520-August 1521 and the Final Years 1522-28
A full and remarkable record of the journey exists in the diary which Dürer wrote between 12th July 1520 and 15th July 1521. Another survival from this journey is an exquisite sketchbook or ‘buchlein’, as Dürer called it, of drawings in metal-point on pink prepared paper recording portraits of people he met and the places he visited. The trip was partly to ask for an extension of his annuity from Charles V whose coronation as Holy Roman Emperor he attended in Aachen. However, the major reason for the journey was business, as he had sent ahead a considerable number of engravings and woodcuts with the intention of selling them. Accompanied by his wife and her maid, Dürer spent a year based in Antwerp, and may have intended to spend even longer but religious and political upheavals contributed to his sudden departure.
His last years in Nuremburg were taken up with the production of superb portrait engravings and his painting of the Four Holy Men, his gift to the Town Hall of Nuremburg. He died on 6th April 1528. His estate was valued at almost 7,000 florins, inherited by his wife, Agnes. Death masks were taken of his face and hands when his coffin was reopened some days later. Locks of his hair were cut off on his death bed and were almost regarded as relics.
If you missed booking for Week One of this short course, access to the on-demand recording may still be purchased by clicking here.
Proceeds from our ticket sales benefit museums, galleries and other arts-based organisations and projects.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom which can be watched live, or on-demand for three weeks afterwards. You will receive your link to access the event in your email confirmation and the on-demand link after the event ends.