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Formative Years: The First Journeys, 1483-1494
All the great painters of the German Renaissance, including Mathis
Grunewald (ca. 1470/75-1528), Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553),
and Albrecht Altdorfer (ca. 1490-1535), had remarkable artistic
personalities. This was partly conditioned by their environment,
where they were quite rooted. The fact that they often held
positions in government, as did Cranach and Altdorfer, also
contributed to this geographic stability. Durer stands out among
them not only for his artistic value, but because he was the only
one who, without ever interrupting his own artistic activity,
traveled to Italy and the Netherlands to search for new stimuli and
experiences. Hans Holbein the Younger (1492-1543) also traveled: he
went to France, Lombardy, and England. In England, he entered into
the service of Henry VIII, where he remained until his death.
However, he is an exception among German painters, and, in any case,
he is younger than the artists mentioned, coming almost a generation
after Durer.
Durer was born in Nuremberg, 21 May 1471. His artistic formation and
his travel routes were affected by different circumstances, though
they were largely determined by two factors: the central
geographical position of his city—which favored commercial,
cultural, and artistic relationships; and his family. His father,
whose name was also Albrecht, was a respected goldsmith of Hungarian
origin who, after having traveled and worked for a certain period in
the Netherlands, settled in Nuremberg in 1455. Here he began to work
in the workshop of the goldsmith Hieronymus Holper, and married his
fifteen-year-old daughter, Barbara. He inherited the workshop after
Holper's death, following custom (see the portraits of Durer's
parents).
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Portrait of Barbara Durer
The portrait of Durer's mother
(1452-1514), together with the portrait of his father, also
called Albrecht, was part of a diptych that appears as
number 19 in the 1573-74 inventory owned by Willibald imhoff,
a Nuremberg patrician. This inventory also brings to light
that the two portraits were acquired by Ursula Durer, the
widow of the painter's brother Endres. The portrait was seen
again in Nuremberg by Carel van Mander, as is recorded in
his 1604 Schilderboek. It disappeared in the middle of the
seventeenth century, to be rediscovered as the portrait of
Barbara Durer only in the mid-1960s at the Germanisches
Nationalmu-seum (Brand Philips, 1978/79). The museum
acquired the painting from Munich's antique market in 1925.
It came from the collector of Durer's drawings, the
Frenchman His de la Salle. There are several indications
that it is the painting of lmhoff's inventory. The number 19
(that is, the one corresponding to the place in the
inventory), is painted on the reverse side. It is found on
top of an image of a devil who takes shelter in the crack of
a rock, between clouds. Furthermore, these clouds are
identical with those appearing behind the coat of arms in
the portrait of Barbara's husband.
The presence of the devil can only be interpreted as an
image to contrast with Barbara Durer. Since Piero della
Francesca represented the triumph of virtue on the reverse
side of the portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and of
Battista Sforza, it is plausible that Durer, painting on the
reverse side, had wanted to represent the devil, driven out
by the virtue and faith of his mother (note the rosary that
she holds in her hands). It could be a slightly different
formulation of the theme of the triumph of virtue over vice,
which will be treated on subsequent occasions. If there are
any lingering doubts that this is the portrait of a
thirty-nine-year-old woman, mother of sixteen, as was
Barbara Durer, one should remember that the portraits of
women were generally much more idealized than those of men.
In addition, the idealization could act as a final homage to
her virtue.
Durer shows that he does not yet have a perfect mastery of
perspective in the painting (note the left arm of the
mother). Even the folds of clothing are represented somewhat
schematically; on the other hand, his extraordinary realism
is already demonstrated by the clear, flesh-pink of the face
and the white bonnet with the fallen tip. The sleeves and
the hands are only partly seen, according to the portraiture
conventions of the day. The color of the background is
neutral. The pictorial tradition of his teacher is still
present. Note, in this painting, the resemblance of the
mother's head to that of the Magdalene under the Cross in
the Lamentation of Michael Wolgemut of 1484-85.
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 Portrait
of Barbara Durer
1490
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg
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Portrait
of Durer's Father
The portrait of Durer's father (1427-1502) is found, in
Willibald Imhoffs inventory, at the same number as the one
of his mother. Separated from the latter, it was sold to
Emperor Rudolph II between 1588 and 1628. Prior to 1675, it
was part of Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici's collection; in
the eighteenth century, it was at Poggio lmperiale and,
since 1773, it has been at the Uffizi. The coats of arms of
the Durer and Holper families are depicted on the reverse
side of the painting, with the date 1490 and the number 19
of the Imhoff inventory. The two panels were furnished with
hinges so that they could be closed, one on the other: on
one side, the coats of arms in front of the smoky clouds
could be seen, and on the other, the devil who is taking
shelter in the crack of a rock.
The nineteen-year-old Durer painted the portraits of his
parents as soon as he finished his three-year apprenticeship
under the woodcutter and painter Michael Wolgemut of
Nuremberg (1490), and before undertaking his journey to
Colmar, for Easter (April 11) of the same year. These are
the first two documented panels of the young artist, and the
oldest example of a diptych of portraits known in German art.
The relief of the wrinkles of the hands, the length of the
fingernails, the expressiveness of the moist gaze of the
eyes—which reflects the window bars—the precise depiction of
the eyebrows, and of the first hint of the beard: all these
details indicate the immense talent of the still-young
artist. The dimension of the head and the position, in the
visual field, of the upper part of the body are also fruits
of a wise, thought-out decision, which brings focus to the
head, whether for the effect of light or for its
relationship with respect to the dimensions of the painting.
Together they create a delicate counterpoise with the joined
hands. Before such pictorial sensitivity, the slight
difficulty that the artist encounters in representing the
shortened right forearm appears almost negligible. In
comparison with the portrait of his mother, the one of his
father is more characterized, and not only for the exterior
aspect. According to Durer's description in the "Family
Chronicle" of 1524, he was "a man, gentle and peaceful with
whomever," and his sensitive nature also transpires from
this image.
In general, the portrait of the woman should not be to the
left—for the spectator—of the man's, as it is in this case
(compare the portraits of the Tuchers);
however, other examples like this exist.
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 Portrait
of Durer's Father
1490
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
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Alliance
Coat of Arms of the Durer and Holper Families
1490
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
Combined Coat-of-Arms of the Tucher and Rieter Families
1499
Schlossmuseum, Weimar
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Hans Tucher
1499
Schlossmuseum, Weimar |
Felicitas Tucher, nee Rieter
1499
Schlossmuseum, Weimar |
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Two Portraits:
Hans Tucher &
Felicitas Tucher, nee Rieter
In 1824, the two portraits were included in the inventory of the
museum in the Jagerhaus of Weimar. After 1918, they were passed from
the grand dukes to the museum.
It was commissioned in the same year as the diptych of Nicolas and
Elsbeth Tucher. They had approximately the same
composition because Wolgemut, Durer's master, had already done
portraits of the members of the Tucher family years before. Even the
setting of the portraits is very similar. The presence of an
embroidered curtain in the background, the almost identical
landscape passage seen through the windows, and lastly, the
windowsill set equal spatial limits to the portraits. The
foreshortenings of the landscape passage are imaginative and
mannered, showing roads, lakes, and mountains. On the road, in the
landscape behind the man's portrait, one discerns a wayfarer; on the
path, in the woman's portrait, a man on horseback. The same clouds
are seen in the clear sky behind the man, as in the wife's portrait,
and in Elsbeth Tucher's.
Hans Tucher, a descendant of an old Nuremberg family and an
important member of the city council, is depicted in lavish clothes,
with a fur collar, a symbol of his high-ranking position. The head,
portrayed in a more elevated position than that of his consort, is
framed by soft and wavy hair. The eyes, which have slightly
different size, have an open gaze, the eyelids are somewhat lowered,
the nose is long and sharp, the lips thin: the result is a proud but
winning look, which is also emphasized by the points of the beret
folded to the back and front. Besides the ring he wears on his
thumb, he holds—like Elsbeth Tucher in her portrait—another ring,
gold, in his hand as evidence of his marriage, contracted in 1482
with Felicitas. She, in turn, holds a carnation, with a bud and a
flower. Her plump face is turned to the left, but her gaze, with
slightly melancholic eyes, looks to the right. Like her
sister-in-law, she wears a gold chain around her neck, and the
waistcoat, according to custom, is held by a buckle, which
is engraved with the initials of her consort, H. T.
The combined coat of arms of Tucher-Rieter is depicted on the verso
of the Hans Tucher portrait, which became the anterior side of the
closed diptych.
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Portrait of Elsbeth Tucher
In 1499, the brothers Nicolas and Hans Tucher (the latter a member
of the city council of Nuremberg) have Durer execute their portraits
and the portraits of their wives. In all likelihood, they had even
determined the unusually small dimensions of the portraits and their
characteristics with the artist: in a half-bust, holding a ring or
flower. The background probably also corresponds to their wishes: a
damask curtain, beside which a window opens sideways onto a
landscape passage. The missing panel, with the portrait of Nicolas,
probably had the coat of arms of the families of both spouses on the
retro, as did the example of the panel of the Portrait of Hans Tucher. The dimensions of the panels and the fact that
they could be kept closed leads one to consider that they were not
representative portraits, but rather, objects destined for the
family archive.
The twenty-six-year-old woman hides her braided hair under a bonnet
with a net design, a sign of her status as a married woman.
The head is portrayed in a three-quarter profile, in the act of
casting an affectionate glance to her consort. The depiction of the
face is delicate: the eyes-each different—have an absent expression;
the cheekbones protrude slightly; the chin is firm; the mouth is
well modeled; the skin color, suffused in a soft light, is rosy. The
overall impression is of a portrait of someone with whom the artist
had some kind of relationship, without, however, betraying any
particular emotion. It is realistic, but not particularly
meaningful. The bodice is held, according to the fashion (see the
Madonna who supports Christ's hand in the Lamentation of
Christ), by a gold clasp with her consort's initials, N. T., and
has a heavy gold necklace running beneath it. Both the clasp and the
necklace are gifts from her husband. The letters embroidered on the
bonnet and the two Ws on the folds of the blouse, perhaps the
initials of some motto, remain unexplained.
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Portrait of Elsbeth Tucher
1499
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel |
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Christ as
the Man of Sorrows
The museum in Karlsruhe acquired this panel in 1941 from the heirs
of the painter Philip Roth (1841-1921) of Munich. The head leaning
on the hand and the gaze
of Christ express melancholy and recall the self-portrait of Durer
in a melancholic and tormented state of mind, drawn in about 1491 in
Erlangen. Nevertheless, the small panel must have been
created as a private devotional panel at the end of his journeys,
about 1493 or 1494 (Anzelewsky, 1991). The twigs of thistle and the
little owl, who is attacked by other birds, engraved on the golden
background, have prompted different interpretations, the most
probable of which is the Redemption of man the sinner through the
suffering and death of Christ.
As in the portraits, the head of Christ is of a distinguished
workmanship, both for the formal and psychological profile; the
painting easily lends itself to be used as a devotional panel.
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Christ as
the Man of Sorrows
c. 1493
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karslruhe |
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The third of eighteen children, Durer discovered, early on, his
first artistic inclinations while training at his father's workshop
for a three-year apprenticeship. He then entered, at age sixteen,
the workshop of Michael Wolgemut, the painter and woodcutter; like
other great artists, Durer was first a goldsmith and then a painter.
At Wolgemut's workshop, altar polyptychs consisting of sculptures
and large painted panels were executed. However, many were also
done, which were then printed by Anton Koberger, Durer's godfather,
a famous printer and editor of the time. It was the apprenticeship
in wood engraving that was to leave a mark on the artistic
development of Albrecht.
At the end of this three-year apprenticeship, the nineteen-year-old
Durer, unable to tolerate the limitations of Wolgemut's workshop,
and determined to widen his horizons, set out auf Wanderschaft. At
that time, and for a long time after, these so-called Wanderjahre
(years spent wandering) were, in Germany, the "journeying"
apprenticeship of every reputable artisan. And it was so in Durer's
Germany, even for an artist from the artisan class. The Lehrling
(apprentice) would pass to Geselle (worker), then to become
Meister,
that is, master, and thus, proprietor and owner of a workshop. Durer
did this, setting out along the upper Rhine. Certainly on his
father's advice—who, in that period, had much influence on his
decisions and artistic development in general—Durer made a stop in
Colmar, in the workshop of Martin Schongauer, one of the most
respected German painters and engravers of the age, who was also a
goldsmith's son. Here he was to have stayed for another period of
apprenticeship.
Unfortunately, Schongauer died shortly before Durer's arrival;
however, his brothers allowed the young artist access to his works,
particularly to his drawings, a certain number of which he kept for
some time afterward. He proceeded on, arriving in Basel in 1492,
which at that time was an important publishing center. Here he could
put to use his experience as a woodcutter, contributing with
illustrations to Sebastian Brant's edition of Narrenschijf
(stultifera navis), Terence's comedies and Ritter vom Turm.
After a period in Strasbourg (see the Self-Portrait of
Strasbourg), toward the end of 1494, Durer returned to Nuremberg. He had
been away from home for four years. Unfortunately, we do not know if
his Wanderschaft took him to the Netherlands as well, where his
father had been as a young boy. It is very likely that he was in
Cologne and Mainz. His return just three months away, the
twenty-four-year-old Albrecht took, along with the conspicuous dowry
of 200 florins, the hand of Agnes, the daughter of the artisan Hans
Frey. She belonged to the well-to-do Nuremberg bourgeois and was an
acclaimed harpist.
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Self-portrait of Strasbourg, at 22
1493
Musee du Louvre, Paris |
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Self-portrait of Strasbourg
This painting was probably part of the Imhoff collection in
Nuremberg and subsequently—though it is not for certain— part of the
collection of Emperor Rudolph II.
After passing through various private hands, the last being L.
Goldschmidt of Paris, it became part of the Louvre collections in
1922.
The very eloquent inscription, "my affairs are ordained from Him
above," is expressed in an idiom that resembles the Alemannic-Alsatian
dialect (Rupprich, 1956, I, p. 211 n. 6).
This is not surprising, since at that time (1493), during his early
Wanderjahre, Durer would have been in Strasbourg. This would also be
supported by the fact that it is a painting on parchment, an easily
transportable material. Goethe, who had seen a copy of the painting,
had already recognized in the drawing that the youth holds a sprig
of sea holly (Eryngium) in his hands, whose current German name is
Mannestreu, or Mannertreu, that is, "fidelity of man." This name
consequently provoked diverse interpretations as to its presence in
the painting.
Thausing (1876/84) insists on seeing a request for marriage in the
gesture of offering the plant.
From the times of Pliny (Willnau-Giessler, Zeitschrift fur bildende
Kunst, 1930), sea holly had been a sign of conjugal fidelity.
Durer would have painted the portrait for Agnes Frey, who was
betrothed to him, as arranged by their parents. Ludwig Grote finds a
link between the plant and the inscription and proposes a religious
interpretation, tied to the Passion of Our Lord. Edgar Wind (Giorgione,
La Tempesta, 1969) sees in the plant an allusion to the fortuna
amoris or even to the constantia amoris, recalling that the plant
was present in the engraving Nemisis (or Fortune) as well. However
it may be, the presence of the sea holly, given the prominence
Durer assigns it, has an important significance.
Before painting this excellent self-portrait, Durer, from the age
of thirteen on, had already executed four others. Two of these, from
his Wanderjahre period, are drawings in half-length. He is portrayed
in all of them with his head covered, but in the Paris portrait, for
the first time he chooses a showy, fashionable headgear: a red beret
with a cluster of red ribbons, worn on a slant, as if from force of
habit.
The long blond hair falling to his shoulders is similarly studied.
On the shoulders, we find a garment with a red and gold hem draping
over a shimmering white blouse whose pleats are gathered by many
decorative ribbons.
We also see the sleeve puffing at the right elbow. So much
refinement in attire does not reveal Durer as he was at that moment,
a wandering painter and a novice without his own workshop; he
represents himself in the portrait much better dressed than he would
have been. He is represented here not how he actually was, but
rather, how he visualized himself in the society where he wanted to
be.
Only the fixed gazed reveals the artist who is portraying himself,
because only in this way would he see his eyes in the mirror. The
beauty of the mouth hints of Durer's still-present vanity. In
contrast, the pronounced nose and the not-so-beautiful hands (the
left one has been painted over; Winkler, 1957; Strieder, 1989
suggests that it is a later supplementation) already reveal his
realism and precision as an observer. The heavy varnish
unfortunately compromises the original brilliance of the color
scheme.
This painting, a self-portrait at twenty-two, represents, with the
exception perhaps of Jan van Eyck and Leon Battista Alberti, the
first and most significant "autonomous" self-portrait—that is, an
image unto itself and removed from the context of European art.
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First Trip to Italy, 1494-1495
A few months after his wedding, the plague broke out in Nuremberg.
Following doctors' advice, Durer left the city as a precaution. He
crossed the Alps, passing Augsburg, Innsbruck, and Trent, to reach
Venice, which was then an important trading center; the German
merchants had their own flourishing colony and owned the "Fondaco
dei Tedeschi." During his trips, Durer painted numerous and very
beautiful watercolors with landscape and architectural themes, watercolors that—thanks to his technique (which was
adopted, before Durer, only by a Wolfgang Katzheimer the Elder in
his scenes of Bamberg, as far as we know) and their exquisite
execution—can be considered among the most beautiful works by the
artist.
Presumably, the German merchants of Venice introduced Durer into the
artistic circles of the city. He naturally frequented Gentile
Bellini's workshop, while the latter worked on the Procession of
the Relics of the Cross in Saint Mark's Square. This is
demonstrated by a drawing with three Turks and one Moor, evidently
taken from that painting, which was not yet completed. In Venice, he
painted devotional images and contemporaneously executed copies of
some of Mantegna's and Antonio Pollaiolo's engravings and of Lorenzo
di Credi's drawings. In the meantime, he carefully observed all that
surrounded him—people, animals, and things—as ine drawings of the
clothes of Venetian ladies, the costumes of the Turkish figures, and
the famous Sea Crab (eriphia spinifrons), besides the
portraits, all bear witness.
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 View of Arco
1495
Paris, Louvre |
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 The Quarry
1495
London, British Museum |
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Virgin and
Child before an Archway
As published by Longi in 1961, this painting was located in
Bagnacavallo, in the monastery of Capuchins nuns founded in 1474;
evidently, it has not left Italy since Durer's time. The cloth that
wrapped around the child's hips was considered a posterior addition
and has been removed. Longhi and Musper dated the work to Durer's
second trip to Italy (1505-6). The catalog of 1971, as well as
Anzelewsky, comparing it with various drawings of the artist, date
it to his first sojourn in Italy (1494-95), and, more precisely,
before the Haller Madonna, a date that seems much more
probable. Strieder has it painted in Germany, in the period after
the painter's first sojourn in Venice. The small image of the
Madonna, like that of a private devotional panel, is painted, as
Anzelewsky rightly observes, in the Florentine style, in a
three-quarter figure. The Madonna is seen through a window, with one
side of the frame and the window sill projecting out. The marble
wall that stands behind the Madonna is interrupted by an arched
doorway, which, standing open, gives way to another brick wall,
illuminated from above. Between the Madonna and the back wall is a
shallow space, typical of all Durer's early works. The Madonna,
young and graceful, with long curls, wears a red gown and a blue
cloak. She delicately holds the infant in her lap, like a most
precious treasure. She looks downward and smiles gently, her eyes
still lowered, enraptured.
The infant, delicately shaped by the effects of the light, is
anatomically perfect; his rapt gaze is facing upward, toward his
father. In his right hand, he holds a small strawberry stem, which
may symbolize the incarnation of Christ (Levi d'Ancona, The Garden
of the Renaissance, Florence, 1957). The small feet, one placed over
the other, foreshadow the Crucifixion; the dangling right arm
recalls the deposition and the lamentation; the white cloth, the
sudarium.
Through the symbolic attributes and the expressiveness of the
gestures, the image suggests to the faithful to contemplate the
theme of the incarnation with that of the Passion.
These eventualities are foreseen and accepted by the humble pose of
the Virgin Mary.
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Virgin and
Child before an Archway
c. 1495
Magnani Collection, Mamiano near Parma
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