Guided tour · One artist · Nuremberg · 1471–1528

Albrecht Dürer

Eleven works by the painter and printmaker from Nuremberg: a self-portrait, a rhinoceros and a magic square.

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Works

11

Time

about 17 min

Collections

6

About this tour

Albrecht Dürer of Nuremberg was a painter, a draughtsman and above all a printmaker: his woodcuts and engravings made him famous all over Europe. Eleven works, from a drawing he made at 22 to a portrait engraved two years before he died. At every work, look first, then discover.

We begin in 1493. Dürer is 22, a young painter on his travels.

The 11 works

1. 

   Work 1 of 11

   Self-portrait, Study of a Hand and a Pillow

   Albrecht Dürer · 1493 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

   Dürer drew three things on this sheet. Can you find them?

   His own face, a hand and, below, a pillow. He was practising on what was in front of him, himself included.

   On the back of the sheet are six more pillows. Dürer first drew himself at thirteen, and kept doing so all his life.

2. 

   Work 2 of 11

   Madonna and Child

   Albrecht Dürer · about 1496–99 · National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

   Look out of the window on the left. What do you see?

   A landscape with a winding path to a walled fortification, painted in tiny detail.

   The calm Madonna in front of a curtain recalls the paintings Dürer had seen in Venice. On the back of the panel he painted Lot fleeing from Sodom.

3. 

   Work 3 of 11

   The Four Horsemen, from the Apocalypse

   Albrecht Dürer · 1498 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

   Four riders storm across the sky. What do they carry?

   A bow, a sword and a pair of scales. The fourth rider, in front on a thin horse, is Death.

   Dürer published the Apocalypse himself, fifteen large woodcuts in one book. It made his name all over Europe.

4. 

   Work 4 of 11

   Saint Eustace

   Albrecht Dürer · about 1501 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

   The hunter has stopped and knelt. What has he seen?

   A crucifix between the antlers of a stag. In the legend, the Roman general Placidus became a Christian, baptised with the name Eustace.

   It is Dürer's largest engraving, crowded with detail. Count the five dogs at the bottom.

5. 

   Work 5 of 11

   Salvator Mundi

   Albrecht Dürer · about 1505 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

   Something is not finished in this painting. What?

   The face and the hands: they are still only drawing. Only the robes are finished.

   Dürer probably began it shortly before he set off for Italy again, in 1505. We can see how he worked: a precise drawing first, then layers of colour.

6. 

   Work 6 of 11

   Knight, Death and Devil

   Albrecht Dürer · 1513 · National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

   Who rides along with the knight?

   Death, with a snake in his crown, holding up an hourglass, and behind them a horned devil. The knight rides on, looking straight ahead.

   With Saint Jerome in his Study and Melencolia I, it is one of Dürer's three 'master engravings'.

7. 

   Work 7 of 11

   Saint Jerome in his Study

   Albrecht Dürer · 1514 · Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton

   Who is lying on the floor?

   A lion, Jerome's faithful companion, and beside it a dog.

   Sunlight falls through the round window panes into a calm, orderly room. At the back the saint, who translated the Bible into Latin, sits writing.

8. 

   Work 8 of 11

   Melencolia I

   Albrecht Dürer · 1514 · Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland

   On the wall is a square full of numbers. Which year is hidden in it?

   In the bottom row, 15 and 14: 1514. Every row, column and diagonal adds up to 34.

   Melancholy was linked to creative minds. The winged figure sits among her tools, unable to use them.

9. 

   Work 9 of 11

   Rhinoceros

   Albrecht Dürer · 1515 · Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

   Dürer never saw this animal. Can you spot what he got wrong?

   Its skin is a suit of armour plates and scales, and it has a small extra horn on its back.

   It had been sent from India to the king of Portugal. No one in Europe had seen a rhinoceros since ancient times, and Dürer's picture shaped how Europeans saw it for centuries.

10. 

    Work 10 of 11

    Portrait of a Clergyman

    Albrecht Dürer · 1516 · National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

    Find Dürer's signature.

    The date, 1516, and his monogram: a D standing between the legs of a large A.

    The sitter may be the clergyman Johann Dorsch. Unusually, it is painted on parchment, not on wood.

11. 

    Work 11 of 11

    Erasmus of Rotterdam

    Albrecht Dürer · 1526 · Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven

    The tablet is in Latin and in Greek, and the Latin tells us who this is. What could the Greek line say?

    'His writings will show a better image.' The Latin says that Dürer drew Erasmus from life.

    Dürer had drawn Erasmus in the Netherlands in 1520; the engraving followed six years later.

The end of the tour

From a pillow to Erasmus.

Drawings, paintings, woodcuts and engravings: Dürer mastered them all, and signed them with his famous monogram, AD. He died in Nuremberg in 1528.

Questions at the end

Start this tour in Auriaan

Works from these collections

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• National Gallery of Art
• Princeton University Art Museum
• Cleveland Museum of Art
• Städel Museum
• Yale University Art Gallery

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