Editing Albrecht Dürer (section)

==Biography==
===Early life (1471–1490)===
[[File:Durer-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-thirteen.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Self-portrait]] [[silverpoint]] drawing by the thirteen-year-old Dürer, 1484. [[Albertina]], Vienna.]]

Dürer was born on 21 May 1471, the third child and second son of Albrecht Dürer the Elder and Barbara Holper, who married in 1467.<ref name="BPA11">Brand Philip & Anzelewsky (1978–79), 11.</ref><ref name=":0" /> Albrecht Dürer the Elder (originally Albrecht Ajtósi) was a successful [[goldsmith]] who by 1455 had moved to Nuremberg from [[Ajtós]], near [[Gyula (town)|Gyula]] in [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]].<ref name="heaton">{{Cite book|last=Heaton|first=Mrs. Charles|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofalbrechtdu00heat|title=The Life of Albrecht Dürer of Nürnberg: With a Translation of His Letters and Journal and an Account of His Works|publisher=Seeley, Jackson and Halliday|year=1881|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofalbrechtdu00heat/page/29 29], 31–32|author-link=Mary Margaret Heaton}}</ref> He married Barbara, his master's daughter, when he himself qualified as a master.<ref name=":0" /> Her mother, Klinga Öllinger had some roots in Hungary too,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hungarianottomanwars.com/essays/albrecht-durer-1471-1528-and-hungary/ | title=Albrecht Dürer (1471 -1528) and Hungary - Hungarian-Ottoman Wars | date=4 May 2020 }}</ref> as she was born in [[Sopron]]. The couple had eighteen children together, of which only three survived. [[Hans Dürer]] (1490–1534), also became a painter, trained under the older Albrecht. The other surviving brother, Endres Dürer (1484–1555), took over their father's business and was a master goldsmith.<ref name="Br16">Brion (1960), 16.</ref> The German name "Dürer" is a translation from the Hungarian, "Ajtósi".<ref name="heaton"/> Initially, it was "Türer", meaning doormaker, which is "ajtós" in Hungarian (from "ajtó", meaning door). A door is featured in the [[coat-of-arms]] the family acquired. Albrecht Dürer the Younger later changed "Türer", his father's diction of the family's surname, to "Dürer", to adapt to the local Nuremberg dialect.<ref name=":0">Bartrum, 93, n. 1.</ref>

Because Dürer left autobiographical writings and was widely known by his mid-twenties, his life is well documented. After a few years of school, Dürer learned the basics of goldsmithing and drawing from his father. Though his father wanted him to continue his training as a goldsmith, he showed such a precocious talent in drawing that he was allowed to start as an apprentice to [[Michael Wolgemut]] at the age of fifteen in 1486.<ref name="BPA10">Brand Philip & Anzelewsky (1978–79), 10.</ref> A self-portrait, a drawing in [[silverpoint]], is dated 1484 ([[Albertina, Vienna]]) "when I was a child", as his later inscription says. The drawing is one of the earliest surviving children's drawings of any kind, and, as Dürer's Opus One, has helped define his oeuvre as deriving from, and always linked to, himself.<ref name="Koerner">[[Joseph Koerner]], ''The Moment of Self-Portraiture in Renaissance Art'', University of Chicago Press, 1993.</ref> Wolgemut was the leading artist in Nuremberg at the time, with a large workshop producing a variety of works of art, in particular woodcuts for books. Nuremberg was then an important and prosperous city, a centre for publishing and many luxury trades. It had strong links with [[Italy]], especially [[Venice]], a relatively short distance across the [[Alps]].<ref name="Bartrum"/>

Dürer's godfather [[Anton Koberger]] left goldsmithing to become a printer and publisher in the year of Dürer's birth. He became the most successful publisher in Germany, eventually owning twenty-four [[printing-press]]es and a number of offices in Germany and abroad. Koberger's most famous publication was the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'', published in 1493 in German and Latin editions. It contained an unprecedented 1,809 [[woodcut]] illustrations (albeit with many repeated uses of the same block) by the Wolgemut workshop. Dürer may have worked on some of these, as the work on the project began while he was with Wolgemut.<ref name="Bartrum">[[Giulia Bartrum]], ''Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy'', British Museum Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-7141-2633-0}}.</ref>

===''Wanderjahre'' and marriage (1490–1494)===
[[File:Albrecht-self.jpg|thumb|left|The earliest painted ''[[Portrait of the Artist Holding a Thistle (Albrecht Dürer)|Self-Portrait]]'' (1493) by Albrecht Dürer, oil, originally on [[vellum]] ([[Louvre]], [[Paris]])]]

After completing his apprenticeship, Dürer followed the common German custom of taking ''[[Journeyman years|Wanderjahre]]''—in effect [[gap year]]s—in which the apprentice learned skills from other masters, their local tradition and individual styles; Dürer was to spend about four years away. He left in 1490, possibly to work under [[Martin Schongauer]], the leading engraver of Northern Europe, but who died shortly before Dürer's arrival at [[Colmar]] in 1492. It is unclear where Dürer travelled in the intervening period, though it is likely that he went to [[Frankfurt]] and the [[Netherlands]]. In Colmar, Dürer was welcomed by Schongauer's brothers, the goldsmiths Caspar and Paul and the painter Ludwig. Later that year, Dürer travelled to [[Basel]] to stay with another brother of Martin Schongauer, the goldsmith Georg.{{refn|Here he produced a woodcut of [[St Jerome]] as a frontispiece for Nicholaus Kessler's ''Epistolare beati Hieronymi''. [[Erwin Panofsky]] argues that this print combined the "[[Ulm]]ian style" of Koberger's ''Lives of the Saints'' (1488) and that of Wolgemut's workshop. Panofsky (1945), 21|group=n}} In 1493 Dürer went to [[Strasbourg]], where he would have experienced the sculpture of [[Nikolaus Gerhaert]]. Dürer's first painted self-portrait (now in the [[Louvre]]) was painted at this time, probably to be sent back to his fiancée in Nuremberg.<ref name="Bartrum"/>

[[File:Dürer - Agnes Dürer (Mein Agnes), Albertina 3063.jpg|thumb|right|Dürer's sketch of his wife Agnes Frey (1494)]]

Very soon after his return to Nuremberg, on 7 July 1494, at the age of 23, Dürer was married to [[Agnes Frey]] following an arrangement made during his absence. Agnes was the daughter of a prominent brass worker (and amateur harpist) in the city. However, no children resulted from the marriage, and with Albrecht the Dürer name died out. The marriage between Agnes and Albrecht was believed not to be a generally happy one, as indicated by a letter of Dürer in which he quipped to [[Willibald Pirckheimer]] in a rough tone about his wife, calling her an "old crow" and made other vulgar remarks. Pirckheimer also made no secret of his antipathy towards Agnes, describing her as a miserly shrew with a bitter tongue, who helped cause Dürer's death at a young age.<ref name="Wilmot-BuxtonPoynter1881">{{cite book|author1=Harry John Wilmot-Buxton|author2=Edward John Poynter|title=German, Flemish and Dutch Painting|url=https://archive.org/details/germanflemishan00bargoog|year=1881|publisher=Scribner and Welford|page=[https://archive.org/details/germanflemishan00bargoog/page/n40 24]}}</ref> It has been hypothesized by many scholars that Albrecht was bisexual or homosexual, due to the recurrence of allegedly homoerotic themes in some of his works (e.g. ''The Men's Bath''), and the nature of his correspondence with close friends.<ref name="Haggerty2013">{{cite book|author=George Haggerty|title=Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pez9AQAAQBAJ|date=2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-135-58513-6|page=262}}</ref><ref>Brisman, Shira, ''Albrecht Dürer and the Epistolary Mode of Address'', University of Chicago Press, 2017, p. 179.</ref><ref>Mills, Robert, ''Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages'', University of Chicago Press, 2015, p. 332, n. 93.</ref><!--One might consider the Women's Bath as an immidiate counter argument, with a man as a voyeur. The joke with the water cock is childish, not especially homoerotic. And: what other works?-->

===First journey to Italy (1494–1495)===
Within three months of his marriage, Dürer left for Italy, alone, perhaps prompted by an outbreak of [[Black Death|plague]] in Nuremberg. He made watercolour sketches as he traveled over the Alps. Some have survived and others may be deduced from accurate landscapes of real places in his later work, for example his engraving ''Nemesis''.

In Italy, he went to Venice to study its more advanced artistic world.<ref name=Lee>Lee, Raymond L. & Alistair B. Fraser. (2001) ''The Rainbow Bridge'', Penn State Press. {{ISBN|0-271-01977-8}}.</ref> Through Wolgemut's tutelage, Dürer had learned how to make prints in [[drypoint]] and design woodcuts in the German style, based on the works of Schongauer and the [[Housebook Master]].<ref name=Lee /> He also would have had access to some Italian works in Germany, but the two visits he made to Italy had an enormous influence on him. He wrote that [[Giovanni Bellini]] was the oldest and still the best of the artists in Venice. His drawings and engravings show the influence of others, notably [[Antonio del Pollaiuolo]], with his interest in the proportions of the body; [[Lorenzo di Credi]]; and [[Andrea Mantegna]], whose work he produced copies of while training.<ref>Campbell, Angela and Raftery, Andrew. "Remaking Dürer: Investigating the Master Engravings by Masterful Engraving", [http://artinprint.org/article/remaking-durer-investigating-the-master-engravings/ ''Art in Print'' Vol. 2 No. 4] (November–December 2012).</ref> Dürer probably also visited [[Padua, Italy|Padua]] and [[Mantua]] on this trip.{{refn|The evidence for this trip is not conclusive; the suggestion it happened is supported by Panofsky (1945) and is accepted by a majority of scholars, including the several curators of the large 2020–22 exhibition "Dürer's Journeys", but it has been disputed by other scholars, including Katherine Crawford Luber (in her ''Albrecht Dürer and the Venetian Renaissance,'' 2005)|group=n}}

===Return to Nuremberg (1495–1505)===
On his return to [[Nuremberg]] in 1495, Dürer opened his own workshop (being married was a requirement for this). Over the next five years, his style increasingly integrated Italian influences into underlying Northern forms. Arguably his best works in the first years of the workshop were his woodcut prints, mostly religious, but including secular scenes such as ''The Men's Bath'' ({{Circa|1496}}). These were larger and more finely cut than the great majority of German woodcuts hitherto, and far more complex and balanced in composition.

It is now thought unlikely that Dürer cut any of the woodblocks himself; this task would have been performed by a specialist craftsman. However, his training in Wolgemut's studio, which made many carved and painted altarpieces and both designed and cut woodblocks for woodcut, evidently gave him great understanding of what the technique could be made to produce, and how to work with block cutters. Dürer either drew his design directly onto the woodblock itself, or glued a paper drawing to the block. Either way, his drawings were destroyed during the cutting of the block.

[[File:Dürer Alte Pinakothek.jpg|thumb|Dürer's [[Self-Portrait (Dürer, Munich)|self-portrait at 28]] (1500). [[Alte Pinakothek]], Munich.]]

His series of sixteen designs for the ''Apocalypse''<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.payer.de/christentum/apokalypse.htm| title = Johannesapokalypse in klassischen Comics}}</ref> is dated 1498, as is his engraving of ''[[St. Michael Fighting the Dragon-Albrecht Durer|St. Michael Fighting the Dragon]]''. He made the first seven scenes of the ''Great Passion'' in the same year, and a little later, a series of eleven on the [[Holy Family]] and saints. The ''[[Polyptych of the Seven Sorrows|Seven Sorrows Polyptych]]'', commissioned by [[Frederick III, Elector of Saxony|Frederick III of Saxony]] in 1496, was executed by Dürer and his assistants c.&nbsp;1500. In 1502, Dürer's father died. Around 1503–1505 Dürer produced the first 17 of a set illustrating the ''[[Life of the Virgin]]'', which he did not finish for some years. Neither these nor the ''Great Passion'' were published as sets until several years later, but prints were sold individually in considerable numbers.<ref name="Bartrum"/>

During the same period Dürer perfected the difficult art of using the [[Burin (engraving)|burin]] to make engravings. Most likely he had learned this skill during his early training with his father, as it was also an essential skill of the goldsmith. In 1496 he executed the ''Prodigal Son'', which the Italian Renaissance art historian [[Giorgio Vasari]] singled out for praise some decades later, noting its Germanic quality. He was soon producing some spectacular and original images, notably ''Nemesis'' (1502), ''The Sea Monster'' (1498), and ''Saint Eustace'' ({{circa|1501}}), with a highly detailed landscape background and animals. His landscapes of this period, such as ''Pond in the Woods'' and ''Willow Mill'', are quite different from his earlier watercolours. There is a much greater emphasis on capturing atmosphere, rather than depicting topography. He made a number of [[Madonna (art)|Madonna]]s, single religious figures, and small scenes with comic peasant figures. Prints are highly portable and these works made Dürer famous throughout the main artistic centres of Europe within a very few years.<ref name="Bartrum"/>

The Venetian artist [[Jacopo de' Barbari]], whom Dürer had met in Venice, visited Nuremberg in 1500, and Dürer said that he learned much about the new developments in [[perspective (graphical)|perspective]], [[anatomy]], and [[Body proportions|proportion]] from him.<ref name="se" /> To Dürer it seemed that De' Barbari was unwilling to explain everything he knew, so he began his own studies, which would become a lifelong preoccupation. A series of extant drawings show Dürer's experiments in human proportion, leading to the famous engraving of ''[[Adam and Eve (Dürer)|Adam and Eve]]'' (1504), which shows his subtlety while using the burin in the texturing of flesh surfaces.<ref name="Bartrum"/> This is the only existing engraving signed with his full name.

Dürer created large numbers of preparatory drawings, especially for his paintings and engravings, and many survive, most famously the ''[[Betende Hände]]'' (''Praying Hands'') from circa 1508, a study for an apostle in the Heller altarpiece. He continued to make images in watercolour and [[bodycolour]] (usually combined), including a number of still lifes of meadow sections or animals, including his ''[[Young Hare]]'' (1502) and the ''[[Great Piece of Turf]]'' (1503).

<gallery widths="116" heights="155">
Albrecht Dürer - The Men’s Bath - Google Art Project.jpg|The Men's Bath, {{Circa|1496}}, woodcut, 39.2&nbsp;×&nbsp;28.3&nbsp;cm, ([[Art Institute of Chicago]])
10 The Prodigal Son.jpg|''The Prodigal Son'' (1496), copper engraving, 24.7&nbsp;×&nbsp;19.1&nbsp;cm ([[Rijksmuseum]], Amsterdam)
Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, Engraving.jpg|''[[Adam and Eve (Dürer)|Adam and Eve]]'' (1504), copper engraving, 29.8&nbsp;×&nbsp;21.1&nbsp;cm ([[Morgan Library & Museum]], New York)
File:Albrecht Dürer - Hare, 1502 - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Young Hare]]'', 1502, watercolour and gouache, 25&nbsp;×&nbsp;22.5&nbsp;cm, [[Albertina, Vienna]]
Albrecht Dürer - The Large Piece of Turf, 1503 - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Large Piece of Turf]]'' (1503), watercolour and gouache w/highlighting, 40,8&nbsp;×&nbsp;31,5&nbsp;cm, Albertina
Albrecht Dürer - Praying Hands, 1508 - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Praying Hands (Dürer)|Praying Hands]]'' ({{circa|1508}}), brush, ink and gray [[Wash (visual arts)|wash]] on blue paper, 29.1&nbsp;×&nbsp;19.7&nbsp;cm, Albertina
</gallery>

===Second journey to Italy (1505–1507)===
[[File:Albrecht Dürer - Feast of Rose Garlands - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[Feast of the Rosary]]'' (1506), oil on panel, 162&nbsp;×&nbsp;192&nbsp;cm, [[National Gallery Prague]]]]

In Italy, he returned to painting, at first producing a series of works executed in [[tempera]] on [[linen]]. These include portraits and altarpieces, notably, the [[Paumgartner altarpiece]] and the ''[[Adoration of the Magi (Dürer)|Adoration of the Magi]]''. In early 1506, he returned to Venice and stayed there until the spring of 1507.<ref name=Mueller /> It was in Venice that he took up the material of [[blue paper]], which he used to execute preparatory drawing for paintings he completed there in 1505–1507.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brahms |first=Iris |date=2023 |title=Ecologies of Blue Paper. Dürer and Beyond |url=https://doi.org/10.11588/xxi.2023.4 |journal=21: Inquiries into Art, History and the Visual |issue=4 |pages=603–638}}</ref> By this time Dürer's engravings had attained great popularity and were being copied. In Venice he was given a valuable commission from the emigrant German community for the church of [[San Bartolomeo, Venice|San Bartolomeo]]. This was the altar-piece known as the ''[[Feast of the Rosary]]'' (or the ''Feast of Rose Garlands''). It shows [[Pope Julius II]] and [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Maximilian I]], peacefully kneeling in adoration before her throne, both with their crowns taken off. It also includes portraits of members of Venice's German community and of Dürer himself on the upper right holding a designation of his authorship. Besides the [[Flemish painting|Flemish]] [[verism]] in the depiction of the greenery and the garments, and the use of his own hues, the altar-piece shows a strong Italian influence. It was later acquired by the Emperor [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Rudolf II]] and taken to Prague.<ref>Kotková, Olga. "'The Feast of the Rose Garlands': What Remains of Dürer?". ''The Burlington Magazine'', Volume 144, No. 1186, 2002. 4–13. {{JSTOR|889418}}</ref>

===Nuremberg and the masterworks (1507–1520)===

[[File:Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and Devil, 1513, NGA 6637.jpg|thumb|''Knight, Death and the Devil'', 1513, [[engraving]], 24.5 x 19.1 cm]]
[[File:Albrecht Dürer - Melencolia I - Google Art Project (427760).jpg|thumb|right|''[[Melencolia I]]'' (1514), engraving]]

[[File:Dürer-Hieronymus-im-Gehäus.jpg|thumb|right|St Jerome in His Study 1514]]

[[File:Albrecht Dürer - The Rhinoceros (NGA 1964.8.697).jpg|thumb|left|''[[Dürer's Rhinoceros|Rhinoceros]]'' (1515), National Gallery of Art]]

Dürer returned to Nuremberg by mid-1507, remaining in Germany until 1520. His reputation had spread throughout Europe and he was on friendly terms and in communication with many of the major artists including [[Raphael]].{{refn|According to Vasari, Dürer sent Raphael a self-portrait in watercolour, and Raphael sent back multiple drawings. One is dated 1515 and has an inscription by Dürer (or one of his heirs) affirming that Raphael sent it to him. See {{cite book |last1=Salmi |first1=Mario |author1-link=Mario Salmi|last2=Becherucci |first2=Luisa |last3=Marabottini |first3=Alessandro |last4=Tempesti |first4=Anna Forlani |last5=Marchini |first5=Giuseppe |last6=Becatti |author6-link=Giovanni Becatti |first6=Giovanni |last7=Castagnoli |first7=Ferdinando |author7-link=Ferdinando Castagnoli |last8=Golzio |first8=Vincenzo |title=The Complete Work of Raphael |date=1969 |publisher=Reynal and Co., [[William Morrow and Company]] |location=New York |pages=278, 407}} Dürer describes [[Giovanni Bellini]] as "very old, but still the best in painting".<ref>[http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/2974/giovanni-bellini-italian-about-14311436-1516/ Giovanni Bellini], The J. Paul Getty Museum.</ref>|group=n}}

Between 1507 and 1511 Dürer worked on some of his most celebrated paintings: ''[[Adam and Eve (Dürer)|Adam and Eve]]'' (1507), ''[[Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand]]'' (1508, for Frederick of Saxony), ''Virgin with the Iris'' (1508), the altarpiece ''Assumption of the Virgin'' (1509, for Jacob Heller of Frankfurt), and ''[[Adoration of the Trinity]]'' (1511, for Matthaeus Landauer). During this period he also completed two woodcut series, the ''Great Passion'' and the ''Life of the Virgin'', both published in 1511 together with a second edition of the ''Apocalypse'' series. The post-Venetian woodcuts show Dürer's development of [[chiaroscuro]] modelling effects,<ref>Panofsky (1945), 135.</ref> creating a mid-tone throughout the print to which the highlights and shadows can be contrasted. Other works from this period include the thirty-seven ''Little Passion'' woodcuts, published in 1511, and a set of fifteen small engravings on the same theme in 1512. Complaining that painting did not make enough money to justify the time spent when compared to his prints,<ref>Panofsky (1945), p. 44.</ref> he produced no paintings from 1513 to 1516. In 1513 and 1514 Dürer created his three most famous [[engraving]]s: ''[[Knight, Death and the Devil]]'' (1513, probably based on [[Desiderius Erasmus|Erasmus]]'s ''[[Handbook of a Christian Knight]]''),<ref>"[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/43.106.2 Knight, Death, and the Devil, 1513–14]". [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]. Retrieved 11 September 2020.</ref> ''[[St. Jerome in His Study (Dürer)|St. Jerome in His Study]]'', and the much-debated ''[[Melencolia&nbsp;I]]'' (both 1514, the year Dürer's mother died).{{refn|In March of this year, two months before his mother died, he drew [[Portrait of the Artist's Mother at the age of 63|a portrait of her]].<ref>Tatlock, Lynne. ''Enduring Loss in Early Modern Germany''. Brill Academic Publishers, 2010. 116. {{ISBN|90-04-18454-6}}.</ref>|group=n}} Further outstanding pen and ink drawings of Dürer's period of art work of 1513 were drafts for his friend Pirckheimer. These drafts were later used to design [[Lusterweibchen]] chandeliers, combining an [[antler]] with a wooden sculpture.

In 1515, he created his ''[[Dürer's Rhinoceros|woodcut of a Rhinoceros]]'' which had arrived in [[Lisbon]] from a written description and sketch by another artist, without ever seeing the animal himself. An image of the [[Indian rhinoceros]], the image has such force that it remains one of his best-known and was still used in some German school science text-books as late as last century.<ref name="Bartrum"/> In the years leading to 1520 he produced a wide range of works, including the woodblocks for the first western printed star charts in 1515<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/durer.html| title = Dürer's hemispheres of 1515 – the first European printed star charts |work=Star Tales |first1=Ian |last1=Ridpath |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231030185707/http://ianridpath.com/startales/durer.html |archive-date= Oct 30, 2023 }}</ref> and portraits in tempera on linen in 1516. His only experiments with [[etching]] came in this period, producing five between 1515–1516 and a sixth in 1518; a technique he may have abandoned as unsuited to his aesthetic of methodical, classical form.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cohen |first1=Brian D |url=http://artinprint.org/article/freedom-and-resistance-in-the-act-of-engraving-or-why-durer-gave-up-on-etching/ |title=Freedom and Resistance in the Act of Engraving (or, Why Dürer Gave up on Etching) |website=Art in Print |series=Vol. 7 No. 3 |date=September–October 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221111185709/https://artinprint.org/article/freedom-and-resistance-in-the-act-of-engraving-or-why-durer-gave-up-on-etching/ |archive-date= Nov 11, 2022 }}</ref>

====Patronage of Maximilian I====
[[File:Albrecht Dürer - Portrait of Maximilian I - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Portrait of Maximilian I'' (1519), oil on lime wood, 74&nbsp;×&nbsp;61,5&nbsp;cm, [[Kunsthistorisches Museum]], Vienna (Inv.&nbsp;GG&nbsp;825)]]
[[File:Albrecht Dürer, The Triumphal Arch of Maximilian, 1515 (1799 edition), NGA 76935.jpg|thumb|''The Triumphal Arch of Maximilian'' (1515, 1799 ed.), 42 woodcuts and 2 etchings, 354&nbsp;×&nbsp;298.5&nbsp;cm overall (National Gallery of Art, Inv. 76935)]]

From 1512, [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]] became Dürer's major patron. He commissioned ''[[The Triumphal Arch]]'', a vast work printed from 192 separate blocks, the symbolism of which is partly informed by Pirckheimer's translation of [[Horapollo]]'s ''Hieroglyphica''. The design program and explanations were devised by [[Johannes Stabius]], the architectural design by the master builder and court-painter Jörg Kölderer and the woodcutting itself by [[Hieronymous Andreae]], with Dürer as designer-in-chief. ''The Arch'' was followed by ''[[The Triumphal Procession]]'' completed c. 1512.

Dürer worked with pen on the marginal images for an edition of the Emperor's printed prayer book; these were quite unknown until facsimiles were published in 1808 as part of the first book published in [[lithography]]. Dürer's work on the book was halted for an unknown reason, and the decoration was continued by artists including [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]] and [[Hans Baldung]]. Dürer also made several portraits of the Emperor, including one shortly before Maximilian's death in 1519.

Maximilian was a very cash-strapped prince who sometimes failed to pay, yet turned out to be Dürer's most important patron.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCorquodale |first1=Charles |title=The Renaissance: European Painting, 1400–1600 |date=1994 |publisher=Studio Editions |isbn=978-1-85891-892-1 |page=261 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h8JJAQAAIAAJ |access-date=3 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cust |first1=Lionel |title=The Engravings of Albrecht Dürer |date=1905 |publisher=Seeley and Company, limited |page=66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RSg_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA66 |access-date=3 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Brion |first1=Marcel |title=Dürer: His Life and Work |date=1960 |publisher=Tudor Publishing Company |page=233 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nhANAQAAIAAJ |access-date=3 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref> In his court, artists and learned men were respected, which was not common at that time (later, Dürer commented that in Germany, as a non-noble, he was treated as a parasite).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Innes |first1=Mary |last2=Kay |first2=Charles De |title=Schools of Painting |date=1911 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's sons |page=214 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OqQaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA214 |access-date=3 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Schäfer |first1=Sandra |title=Erfolgreiche Medienarbeit für die Nachwelt |url=https://kulturfuechsin.com/at/albrecht-duerer-kaiser-maximilian-i-im-khm/ |website=Kulturfüchsin |access-date=3 December 2021 |language=de-DE |date=27 March 2019}}</ref> Pirckheimer (who he met in 1495, before entering the service of Maximilian) was also an important personage in the court and great cultural patron, who had a strong influence on Dürer as his tutor in classical knowledge and humanistic critical methodology, as well as collaborator.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Streissguth |first1=Tom |title=The Renaissance |year= 2007 |publisher=Greenhaven Publishing LLC |isbn=978-0-7377-3216-0 |page=254 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIJmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 |access-date=4 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Jeffrey Chipps |title=Nuremberg, a Renaissance City, 1500–1618 |year= 2014 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-1-4773-0638-3 |page=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AiYKBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT120 |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref> In Maximilian's court, Dürer also collaborated with a great number of other brilliant artists and scholars of the time who became his friends, like [[Johannes Stabius]], [[Konrad Peutinger]], [[Conrad Celtes]], and Hans Tscherte (an imperial architect).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Co |first1=E. P. Goldschmidt & |title=Rare and Valuable Books ... |date=1925 |publisher=E.P. Goldschmidt & Company, Limited |page=125 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xbQ9AAAAIAAJ |access-date=4 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Merback |first1=Mitchell B. |title=Perfection's Therapy: An Essay on Albrecht Dürer's Melencolia I |date=2017 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-1-942130-00-0 |pages=155, 258 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-e1LDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA258 |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Conway |first1=Sir William Martin |last2=Conway |first2=William Martin Sir |last3=Dürer |first3=Albrecht |title=Literary Remains of Albrecht Dürer |date=1889 |publisher=University Press |pages=26–30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LotPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA12 |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=L. Jessie |title=Albrecht Dürer |date=1903 |publisher=Methuen |page=180 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ll2H8mF0jrcC&pg=PA180 |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref>

Dürer was proud of his ability.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bongard |first1=Willi |last2=Mende |first2=Matthias |title=Dürer Today |date=1971 |publisher=Inter Nationes |page=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4pGAQAAIAAJ |access-date=3 December 2021}}</ref> When the emperor tried to sketch Dürer an idea on charcoa, Dürer took the material from Maximilian's hand, finished the drawing and told him: "This is my scepter."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Headlam |first1=Cecil |title=The Story of Nuremberg |date=1900 |publisher=J. M. Dent & Company |page=73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzNLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA73 |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Seton-Watson |first1=Robert William |title=Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor: Stanhope Historical Essay 1901 |date=1902 |publisher=Constable |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tNHDXFR6M-cC&pg=PA96 |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bledsoe |first1=Albert Taylor |last2=Herrick |first2=Sophia M'Ilvaine Bledsoe |title=The Southern Review |date=1965 |publisher=AMS Press |page=114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8_5IAQAAMAAJ |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref> On another occasion, Maximilian noticed that the ladder Dürer used was too short and unstable, thus told a noble to hold it for him. The noble refused, saying that it was beneath him to serve a non-noble. Maximilian then came to hold the ladder himself, and told the noble that he could make a noble out of a peasant any day, but he could not make an artist like Dürer out of a noble.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nüchter |first1=Friedrich |title=Albrecht Dürer, His Life and a Selection of His Works: With Explanatory Comments by Dr. Friedrich Nüchter |date=1911 |publisher=Macmillan and Company, limited |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ROvVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA22 |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Carl |first1=Klaus |title=Dürer |year= 2013 |publisher=Parkstone International |isbn=978-1-78160-625-4 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSn3AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT36 |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Landfester |first1=Manfred |last2=Cancik |first2=Hubert |last3=Schneider |first3=Helmuth |last4=Gentry |first4=Francis G. |title=Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Classical tradition |date=2006 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-14221-3 |page=305 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DebXAAAAMAAJ |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref>

[[File:Albrecht Dürer, The Northern Celestial Hemisphere, 1515, NGA 43181.jpg|thumb|''The Northern Hemisphere of the Celestial Globe'', 1515, woodcut print, 61.3&nbsp;×&nbsp;45.6&nbsp;cm, ([[National Gallery of Art]])]]

This story and a 1849 painting depicting it by {{ill|August Siegert|de}} have become relevant recently. This nineteenth-century painting shows Dürer painting a mural at [[St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna]]. Apparently, this reflects a seventeenth-century "artists' legend" about the previously mentioned encounter (in which the emperor held the ladder) – that this encounter corresponds with the period Dürer was working on the Viennese murals. In 2020, during restoration work, art connoisseurs discovered a piece of handwriting now attributed to Dürer, suggesting that the Nuremberg master had actually participated in creating the murals at St. Stephen's Cathedral. In the recent 2022 Dürer exhibition in Nuremberg (in which the drawing technique is also traced and connected to Dürer's other works), the identity of the commissioner is discussed. Now the painting of Siegert (and the legend associated with it) is used as evidence to suggest that this was Maximilian. Dürer is historically recorded to have entered the emperor's service in 1511, and the mural's date is calculated to be around 1505, but it is possible they have known and worked with each other earlier than 1511.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cascone |first1=Sarah |title=Astounded Scholars Just Found What Appears to Be a Previously Unknown Work by Albrecht Dürer in a Church's Gift Shop |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/durer-discovery-vienna-souvenir-shop-1750233 |access-date=17 July 2022 |work=Artnet News |date=10 January 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=AlbrECHT DÜRER? (2022) |url=http://museen.de/albr-echt-duerer-nuernberg.html |website=museen.de |access-date=17 July 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Albrecht Dürer gibt weiter Rätsel auf |url=https://www.mittelbayerische.de/region/nuernberg-nachrichten/albrecht-duerer-gibt-weiter-raetsel-auf-21503-art2138796.html |access-date=17 July 2022 |work=Mittelbayerische Zeitung |language=de}}</ref>

====Cartographic and astronomical works====
Dürer's exploration of space led to a relationship and cooperation with the court astronomer [[Johannes Stabius]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crane |first1=Nicholas |title=Mercator: The Man who Mapped the Planet |year= 2010 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-0-297-86539-1 |page=74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RDhQIP5syucC&pg=PT74 |access-date=7 November 2021}}</ref> Stabius also often acted as Dürer's and Maximilian's go-between for their financial problems.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Conway |first1=Sir William Martin |last2=Conway |first2=William Martin Sir |last3=Dürer |first3=Albrecht |title=Literary Remains of Albrecht Dürer |date=1889 |publisher=University Press |page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LotPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA27 |access-date=7 November 2021}}</ref>

In 1515 Dürer and Stabius created the first world map projected on a solid geometric sphere.{{sfn|Crane|2010|p=74}} Also in 1515, Stabius, Dürer and the astronomer {{interlanguage link|Konrad Heinfogel|de}} produced the first planispheres of both southern and northerns hemispheres, as well as the first printed celestial maps, which prompted the revival of interest in the field of [[Celestial cartography|uranometry]] throughout Europe.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Noflatscher |first1=Heinz |title=Maximilian I. (1459–1519): Wahrnehmung – Übersetzungen – Gender |date=2011 |publisher=StudienVerlag |isbn=978-3-7065-4951-6 |page=245 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PqT5V2mq4SIC |access-date=7 November 2021 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lachièze-Rey |first1=Marc |last2=Luminet |first2=Jean-Pierre |last3=France |first3=Bibliothèque nationale de |title=Celestial Treasury: From the Music of the Spheres to the Conquest of Space |year=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-80040-2 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ZFXiNn62ZEC&pg=PA86 |access-date=7 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nothaft |first1=C. Philipp E. |title=Scandalous Error: Calendar Reform and Calendrical Astronomy in Medieval Europe |year= 2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-252018-0 |page=278 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dz5MDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA278 |access-date=7 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sauter |first1=Michael J. |title=The Spatial Reformation: Euclid Between Man, Cosmos, and God |year= 2018 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-9555-9 |page=98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Qd7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |access-date=7 November 2021}}</ref>

===Journey to the Netherlands (1520–1521)===
[[File:Albrecht Dürer 035.jpg|left|thumb|''[[St. Jerome in His Study (Dürer, 1521)|St. Jerome in His Study]]'' (1521), oil on oakwood, 59.&nbsp;×&nbsp;48.5&nbsp;cm, [[Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga]], Lisbon. Dürer's most important painting created during his fourth and last major journey.]]

Maximilian's death came at a time when Dürer was concerned he was losing "my sight and freedom of hand" (perhaps caused by arthritis) and increasingly affected by the writings of [[Martin Luther]].<ref>Bartrum, 204. Quotation from a letter to the secretary of the Elector of Saxony.</ref> In July 1520 Dürer made his fourth and last major journey, to renew the Imperial pension Maximilian had given him and to secure the patronage of the new emperor, [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], who was to be crowned at [[Aachen]]. Dürer journeyed with his wife and her maid via the [[Rhine]] to [[Cologne]] and then to [[Antwerp]], where he was well received and produced numerous drawings in silverpoint, chalk and charcoal. In addition to attending the coronation, he visited Cologne (where he admired the painting of [[Stefan Lochner]]), [[Nijmegen]], [['s-Hertogenbosch]], [[Bruges]] (where he saw [[Michelangelo]]'s ''[[Madonna of Bruges]]''), [[Ghent]] (where he admired [[Jan van Eyck]]'s ''[[Ghent Altarpiece]]''),<ref>Borchert (2011), 101.</ref> and [[Zeeland]].

Dürer took a large stock of prints with him and wrote in his diary to whom he gave, exchanged or sold them, and for how much. This provides rare information of the monetary value placed on prints at this time. Unlike paintings, their sale was very rarely documented.<ref>Landau & Parshall: 350–354 and ''passim''.</ref> While providing valuable documentary evidence, Dürer's Netherlandish diary also reveals that the trip was not a profitable one. For example, Dürer offered his last portrait of Maximilian to his daughter, [[Margaret of Habsburg (1480–1530)|Margaret of Austria]], but eventually traded the picture for some white cloth after Margaret disliked the portrait and declined to accept it. During this trip he also met [[Bernard van Orley]], [[Jan Provoost]], [[Gerard Horenbout]], [[Jean Mone]], [[Joachim Patinir]] and [[Tommaso Vincidor]], though he did not, it seems, meet [[Quentin Matsys]].<ref>Panofsky (1945), 209.</ref>

Having secured his pension, Dürer returned home in July 1521, having caught an undetermined illness, which afflicted him for the rest of his life, and greatly reduced his rate of work.<ref name="Bartrum"/>

===Final years, Nuremberg (1521–1528)===
[[File:Salvator Mundi, by Albrecht Dürer, MET.jpg|thumb|''Salvator Mundi'', unfinished oil painting on linden wood, 58.1&nbsp;×&nbsp;47&nbsp;cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York]]

On his return to Nuremberg, Dürer worked on a number of grand projects with religious themes, including a crucifixion scene and a {{Lang|it|[[sacra conversazione]]}}, though neither was completed.<ref>Panofsky (1945), 223.</ref> This may have been due in part to his declining health, but perhaps also because of the time he gave to the preparation of his theoretical works on geometry and perspective, the proportions of men and horses, and [[fortification]].

However, one consequence of this shift in emphasis was that during the last years of his life, Dürer produced comparatively little as an artist. In painting, there was only a portrait of [[commons:File:Albrecht Dürer 078.jpg|Hieronymus Holtzschuher]], a [[commons:File:Albrecht Dürer 061.jpg|''Madonna and Child'' (1526)]], [[commons:File:Albrecht dürer salvator mundi.JPG|''Salvator Mundi'' (1526)]], and two panels showing [[commons:File:Albrecht Dürer 026.jpg|St. John with St. Peter]] and [[commons:File:Albrecht Dürer 027.jpg|St. Paul with St. Mark]] beside him. This last great work, ''[[the Four Apostles]]'', was given by Dürer to the City of Nuremberg—although he was given 100 guilders in return.<ref name="Panofsky"/>

As for engravings, Dürer's work was restricted to portraits and illustrations for his treatise. The portraits include his boyhood friend [[Willibald Pirckheimer]], Cardinal-Elector [[Albert of Mainz]]; [[Frederick the Wise]], elector of Saxony; [[Philipp Melanchthon]], and [[Erasmus of Rotterdam]]. For those of [[Albert of Mainz|the Cardinal]], Melanchthon, and Dürer's final major work, a drawn portrait of the Nuremberg patrician Ulrich Starck, Dürer depicted the sitters in profile.

Despite complaining of his lack of a formal classical education, Dürer was greatly interested in intellectual matters and learned much from Willibald Pirckheimer, whom he no doubt consulted on the content of many of his images.<ref>[[Corine Schleif]] (2010), "Albrecht Dürer between Agnes Frey and Willibald Pirckheimer", ''The Essential Dürer'', ed. Larry Silver and [[Jeffrey Chipps Smith]], Philadelphia, 85–205.</ref> He also derived great satisfaction from his friendships and correspondence with Erasmus and other scholars. Dürer succeeded in producing two books during his lifetime. ''The Four Books on Measurement'' were published at Nuremberg in 1525 and was the first book for adults on [[mathematics]] in German,<ref name="Bartrum"/> as well as being cited later by [[Galileo]] and [[Johannes Kepler|Kepler]]. The other, a work on city fortifications, was published in 1527. ''The Four Books on Human Proportion'' were published posthumously, shortly after his death in 1528.<ref name=Mueller />

Dürer died in Nuremberg at the age of 56, leaving an estate valued at 6,874 florins – a considerable sum. He is buried in the Johannisfriedhof cemetery. [[Albrecht Dürer's House|His large house]] (purchased in 1509 from the heirs of the astronomer [[Bernhard Walther]]), where his workshop was located and where his widow lived until her death in 1539, remains a prominent Nuremberg landmark.<ref name="Bartrum"/>

[[File:Albrecht-Dürer-Haus - Tiergärtnerplatz - Nuremberg, Germany - DSC02033.jpg|thumb|[[Albrecht Dürer's House]] in [[Nuremberg]]]]

====Dürer and the Reformation====
Dürer's writings suggest that he may have been sympathetic to Luther's ideas, though it is unclear if he ever left the Catholic Church. Dürer wrote of his desire to draw Luther in his diary in 1520: "And God help me that I may go to Dr. Martin Luther; thus I intend to make a portrait of him with great care and engrave him on a copper plate to create a lasting memorial of the Christian man who helped me overcome so many difficulties."<ref>Price (2003), 225.</ref> In a letter to [[Nicholas Kratzer]] in 1524, Dürer wrote, "because of our Christian faith we have to stand in scorn and danger, for we are reviled and called heretics". Most tellingly, Pirckheimer wrote in a letter to Johann Tscherte in 1530: "I confess that in the beginning I believed in Luther, like our Albert of blessed memory ... but as anyone can see, the situation has become worse." Dürer may even have contributed to the Nuremberg City Council's mandating Lutheran sermons and services in March 1525. Notably, Dürer had contacts with various reformers, such as [[Huldrych Zwingli|Zwingli]], [[Andreas Karlstadt]], Melanchthon, Erasmus and [[Cornelius Grapheus]] from whom Dürer received Luther's ''[[On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church|Babylonian Captivity]]'' in 1520.<ref>Price (2003), 225–248.</ref> Yet Erasmus and C. Grapheus are better said to be Catholic change agents. Also, from 1525, "the year that saw the peak and collapse of the [[German Peasants' War|Peasants' War]], the artist can be seen to distance himself somewhat from the [Lutheran] movement..."<ref>Wolf (2010), 74.</ref>

However, Dürer's later works have also been claimed to show [[Protestant]] sympathies. His 1523 ''[[The Last Supper]]'' woodcut has often been understood to have an [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] theme, focusing as it does on Christ espousing the [[Gospel]], as well as the inclusion of the [[Eucharist|Eucharistic]] cup, perhaps alluding to tenets of Protestant [[Utraquist|utraquism]],<ref>Strauss, 1981.</ref> although this interpretation has been questioned.<ref>Price (2003), 254.</ref> The delaying of the engraving of [[Philip the Apostle|St. Philip]], completed in 1523 but not distributed until 1526, may have been due to Dürer's uneasiness with images of saints; even if Dürer was not an [[iconoclasm|iconoclast]], in his last years he evaluated and questioned the role of art in religion.<ref>Harbison (1976).</ref>