Albrecht Durer
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Feast of the Rose Garlands new21/Albrecht Durer-775243.jpg Painting ID:: 63727
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1506 Oil on poplar panel National Gallery, Prague The detail shows the artist's self-portrait in front of ae typically German landscape.Artist:D?RER, Albrecht Title: Feast of the Rose Garlands (detail) Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : religious |
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Self-portrait at 22 new21/Albrecht Durer-484887.jpg Painting ID:: 63728
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1493 Oil on linen, transferred from vellum, 57 x 45 cm Mus?e du Louvre, Paris This is D?rer's first painted self portrait, dated 1493. It is the earliest known self portrait in European art produced as an independent painting (although earlier artists had sometimes portrayed themselves among figures in an altarpiece or fresco). A sketched self portrait, dated 1493 on the reverse, could well have been an early study for the oil painting. D?rer completed the oil painting towards the end of his travels as a journeyman, almost certainly in Strasbourg. It was originally on vellum, which would have made it relatively simple to transport, and this suggests that it might well have been sent back to Nuremberg. D?rer inscribed at the top of the self portrait: `Things with me fare as ordained from above', a sign of his faith in God. The artist's youthful features are framed by his lanky, ginger hair, which is topped by a red tasselled cap. Beneath his grey cloak, fringed with red, he wears an elegant pleated shirt with pink ribbons. His strong nose, heart-shaped upper lip and long neck are emphasized in the painting. Using a mirror, D?rer obviously found it difficult to paint his hands and eyes, the two features which are always a challenge in a self portrait. In his rough hands, D?rer holds a sprig of sea holly, a thistle-like plant. Its German name means `man's fidelity' and this, together with the fact that the plant was sometimes regarded as an aphrodisiac, has led to speculation that the self portrait was intended as a gift for his fianc?e. While D?rer was away, his father had arranged for Agnes Frey to become his wife and they eventually married on 7 July 1494, two months after his return to Nuremberg. However, it is just as likely that the self portrait was a gift for his parents, whom he had not seen for nearly four years. One can imagine the surprise and pleasure they must have felt to receive this picture after their son's long absence. It would have been a reminder of his handsome features and further evidence of his blossoming talent.Artist:D?RER, Albrecht Title: Self-portrait at 22 Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : portrait |
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Portrait of a Venetian Woman new21/Albrecht Durer-539739.jpg Painting ID:: 63729
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1506-07 Oil on poplar panel, 28,5 x 21,5 cm Staatliche Museen, Berlin The painting is poorly conserved. Almost all the final layers of colour are missing. The eyes have been restored. Because of the absence of the topmost layer of colour, the painting has acquired a soft chromatic shading. Even if we know that D?rer executed it during his second sojourn in Italy, probably in the autumn of 1506 after the Feast of the Rose Garlands, workmanship seems particularly "Venetian." The refinement of the artist is clearly absent in the sketching of the hair. Some object is discernible in the curl hanging to the left. Only a few traces of the hairnet have been preserved, and the sky blue of the background, which is inexplicably divided into two sections, is probably no longer its original shade. In its original state, however, this half-bust must have been in the Venetian style, because of her full, soft shapes, delicately modeled with a measured use of light. We must count this painting among the most beautiful works D?rer produced during his second sojourn in Venice. The various attempts to identify the model - for example, as Agnes D?rer, because of the letters AD on the trimming of the clothes or the woman with her head turned in the middle right of the Feast of the Rose Garlands - have not held up to criticism. The letters are probably the initials of a motto.Artist:D?RER, Albrecht Title: Portrait of a Venetian Woman Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : portrait |
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Self-Portrait at 26 new21/Albrecht Durer-584697.jpg Painting ID:: 63730
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1498 Oil on panel, 52 x 41 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid This self portrait is dated 1498 and inscribed: `I have thus painted myself. I was 26 years old. Albrecht D?rer.' Since the artist turned 27 on the 21 May, the picture must date from the beginning of the year. The artist's pose is self confident, showing him standing upright and turning slightly to lean his right arm on a ledge. D?rer's figure fills the picture, with his hat almost touching the top. His face and neck glow from the light streaming into the room and his long curly hair is painstakingly depicted. Unlike his earlier self portrait, he now has a proper beard, which was then unusual among young men. Nine years later D?rer wrote an ironic poem in which he described himself as `the painter with the hairy beard'. The artist's clothing is flamboyant. His elegant jacket is edged with black and beneath this he wears a white, pleated shirt, embroidered along the neckline. His jaunty hat is striped, to match the jacket. Over his left shoulder hangs a light-brown cloak, tied around his neck with a twisted cord. He wears fine kid gloves. Inside the room is a tall archway, partly framing D?rer's head, and to the right a window opens out onto an exquisite landscape. Green fields give way to a tree-ringed lake and beyond are snow-capped mountains, probably a reminder of D?rer's journey over the Alps three years earlier. Depicting a distant landscape, viewed through a window, was a device borrowed from Netherlandish portraiture. The Germans still tended to consider the artist as a craftsman, as had been the conventional view during the Middle Ages. This was bitterly unacceptable to D?rer, whose second Self-Portrait (out of three) shows him as slender and aristocratic, a haughty and foppish youth, ringletted and impassive. His stylish and expensive costume indicates, like the dramatic mountain view through the window (implying wider horizons), that he considers himself no mere limited provincial. What D?rer insists on above all else is his dignity, and this was a quality that he allowed to others too. This picture was acquired by Charles I of England and later bought by Philip IV of Spain.Artist:D?RER, Albrecht Title: Self-Portrait at 26 Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : portrait |
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St Jerome in the Wilderness new21/Albrecht Durer-694378.jpg Painting ID:: 63731
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1495 Oil on panel, 23 x 17 cm National Gallery, London St Jerome kneels as a penitent. In his right hand he holds the Bible, which he translated into Latin, and in his left hand the stone which he is using to beat his breast. His eyes stare upwards, beyond the small crucifix stuck into the tree trunk. Wearing a blue gown, his red mantle and cardinal's hat lie beside him on the ground. Behind is his faithful lion, befriended after he had removed a thorn from its paw. In the background is a landscape with dramatic rock formations, probably based on sketches that D?rer had made of the quarries near Nuremberg. The scene is lit by a dramatic evening sky. The reverse of the panel depicts an apocalyptic celestial phenomenon, a red star-like light and a streaking golden disc. Although some scholars have considered it to be an eclipse or meteor, it is almost certainly a comet. D?rer's image is probably derived from woodcuts of comets published in the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493. A similar object to the one painted by D?rer appears in the sky of his engraving of Melencolia I, made 20 years later. This small panel was only recognized as a D?rer in 1956. Art historian David Carritt realized that the lion is similar to that in a gouache which D?rer painted in Venice in 1494.Artist:D?RER, Albrecht Title: St Jerome in the Wilderness Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : religious |
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