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Albrecht Dürer Collection

The Albrecht Dürer Collection at Spirit of the Ages includes images from some of Dürer's seminal work,

including:

• his suite of illustrations accompanying the Revelations of St John - known as Apocalipsis cum Figuris;

• The Sea Monster;

• The Harrowing of Hell;

• Ecce Homo;

• Knight, Death and the Devil;

• The Abduction of Proserpine;

• Saint Anthony;

• his portrait of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg; and

• his magnificent series of plates comprising the Great Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I.

Apocalipsis cum Figuris 15 plates	The Sea Monster 1 plate	Ecce Homo 1 plate	The Harrowing of Hell 1 plate
Knight, Death and the Devil 1 plate	The Abduction of Proserpine 1 plate	Saint Anthony 1 plate	Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg 1 plate

Great Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I 8 joined plates

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) is justifiably regarded as the greatest German Renaissance artist, for, as a young Goethe

claimed, Dürer "when one has learnt to know him thoroughly, has not rival but the first men of the Italian school

in truth, in sublimity and even in grace".

During his lifetime, he produced an extensive body of work that included altarpieces and other religious works,

many portraits and self-portraits, copper engravings and woodcuts. Stylistically, Dürer produced revolutionary

work – particularly following his first journey to Italy – that provided some of the highlights of late German Gothic

art before becoming masterful examples of techniques traditionally associated with Italian Renaissance Masters.

Knackfuss (Durer: H Grevel & Co, London; 1900) comments on Dürer's success during his lifetime thus:

Durer's fame as an artist was undisputed even in his lifetime - not only in Germany and

the Netherlands, but also in Italy. At Venice, as well as at Antwerp, an annual pension

was offered in order to retain him permanently and it was only his sense of patriotism

that resisted the offers which was sufficiently good to be tempting. When he travelled

from Venice to Bologna, he was greeted by the artists of the latter place with extravagant

rejoicings - and at Ferrara, poems were composed in his honour.

The contemporary description of Dürer personality, skill and inspiration, however, as provided by Joachim Camerarius

in his Foreword to the Latin edition of the artist's Doctrine of Proportion, provides particularly illuminating reading:

Nature had given him a body of handsome make and stature, suitable to the beautiful

spirit which it contained. He had an alert head, brilliant eyes, a fine and powerful nose;

his neck was slightly too long, his chest broad, his body slim, his thigs sinewy, his legs

stalwart. His fingers were so shapely that none more beautiful can ever have been seen.

But there was such a music and charm in his utterance that his listeners could not but

be sorry when he ceased to speak. His soul was filled with ardent desire for all that was

honourable in manners and conduct and he set such an example that he was deservedly

esteemed a man of the highest excellence. For all that, he was not stern or sullen, nor of

a displeasing seriousness; on the contrary, whatever tends to amenity and cheerfulness,

without conflicting with honour and rectitude, he had cultivated himself throughout

his life and still approved in his old age - as is proved by the writing which he left on

gymnastics and on music.

But nature had fashioned him beyond all else for a painter, wherefore he gave himself

up to the study of that art with all his might, and was bent on making himself acquainted

with the works of famous painters in every country and on learning their theory and

practice and making his own so much of it as he thought good. It is the perfect justice

that we admire Albrecht as the most zealous upholder of purity and good morals and as

a man who let it be known through the grandeur of his paintings that he was conscious

of his power, while even his less important works are by no means to be despised. We

find in them not a line unconsidered or ill-drawn, not a dot superfluous.

What shall I say of the firmness and sureness of his hand? One could almost swear that he

had used rule and compass for what he had drawn just with the brush, the pencil or the

pen and no other assistance - to the amazement of all beholders. How can I tell of the

close correspondence between hand and creative spirit which he displayed when he

would draw on paper the counterfeit of anything whatsoever? It will, no doubt, appear

incredible to those who read my words hereafter that he sometimes began a drawing

of a composition or of a body in different places, wide apart, which yet, when he came

to connect them, united so perfectly that nothing more coherent could be imagined.

With the like readiness, he carried out the most delicate things on canvas or panel with

the brush without a preliminary drawing - and did so without a fault, or rather so as to

win the highest praise for it all. This was most admired by the most famous painters,

since they best understood the feat and appreciated its difficulty.

High as Albrecht stood, his great and lofty spirit was ever craving for some still higher

perfection. If there was anything at all in this man which resembled a fault, it was his

unbounded industry and the keen self-criticism which hardly did justice to his own

achievements.

There is nothing impure, nothing unworthy, in his works; for the thought of his chaste

mind shrank from all such things. How worthy was the artist of his great success!