Albrecht Drer Northern Renaissance

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Albrecht DürerNorthern Renaissance
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Northern Renaissance

• The Renaissance began in Italy in the late
  1400s. The ideas and styles of Michelangelo,
  Davinci, Raphael, and other great Italian artists
  started to spread around Northern Europe in the
  early 1500s. The Northern Renaissance then lasted
  until about 1615.
• The art of the Northern Renaissance focused very
  much on daily life and nature rather than on
  religious subjects.
  
• The artists of this time worked hard to reflect
  very precise observation. The artists tried to
  paint exactly what they saw and used a lot of
  details in their paintings.

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Albrecht Dürer

• Albrecht Dürer was one of the most important
  Northern Renaissance artists.
  
• He was born in Germany in 1471 and died in 1528
  (almost 500 years ago).
  
• He left thousands of watercolors and drawings
  and is considered the greatest printmaker ever.
  
• He also wrote the first book of mathematics in
  German and was interested in the application of
  math to the arts.

The Two Musicians
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The Young Dürer

• Dürers father was a goldsmith, which is an
  artisan who works with gold and other precious
  metals. He taught Albrecht to draw and to work on
  metal.
• At 15, Albrecht became an apprentice to a famous
  German artist and he learned to carve wood.
  Later he went to Northern Europe and to Italy to
  study art.
• Albrecht drew this picture of himself
• when he was 13 years old.
• He used a mirror to see himself.
• Do you like it? Why or why not?

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Dürers Self-portraits

• Dürer was one of the first artists to paint many
  self-portraits (pictures of himself). He made at
  least 12 self-portraits. Here are 3 of his
  self-portraits at age 22, 26, and 28 years old.
  Why do you think he wanted to paint himself?
  What is different or similar in each painting?
  Can you see the landscape in the background on
  the second portrait? Dürer was one of the first
  European artists to introduce landscape in his
  works.

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Because the camera did not exist at that time,
portraits were very popular among important
people. Sometimes Dürer would be paid to draw a
portrait, or sometimes he would send it as a gift
to an important person such as the Cardinal of
Brandenburg (left) or Frederick the Wise (right).
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Animals in Dürers Art

• Dürer was one of the first artists to view
  animals as a subject for art.
  
• This is one of his most famous watercolor
  paintings. What are some of the details in this
  painting?
  
• Can you see the little inscription/symbol at the
  bottom? That was Dürers distinctive monogram.

A Young Hare
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The Praying Hands

• This is a sketch Dürer drew to be later painted
  as part of a panel in a church in Bavaria. The
  Church burned down in the 1700s, but this famous
  sketch remains. This is the most replicated
  (copied) drawing of Dürers. What do you notice
  in this drawing?

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Printmaking

• By carving wood and engraving copper, Dürer was
  able to make many (and fairly inexpensive)
  reproductions of the same picture.
  
• He was able to sell many reproductions of his
  art and became quickly famous throughout Europe.
  
  
• His most imaginative and extensive works are his
  printings. A reason for this is that printing
  allowed more freedom and experimentation than
  more public forms of art like painting and
  sculpture.

The Prodigal Son Amid the Swine
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Woodcut

• Woodcut is a technique in printmaking in which
  an image is carved into the surface of a block of
  wood. The printing parts are level with the
  surface while the non-printing parts are removed.
  
• The areas to show white are cut away with a
  knife, leaving the image to show in black at
  the original surface level. Then the wood would
  be inked and printed onto paper.
• Dürer did lots of big scale woodcuts and
  depicted mostly religious themes. Observe the
  different highlights and shadows (this technique
  is called chiaroscuro).

St. Jerome
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Rhinoceros woodcut
Rhinoceros drawing

• A rhinoceros arrived in Portugal from the Far
  East in 1514 and was not seen in Europe since the
  Roman times. Dürer created first a drawing and
  then a woodcut from a description and sketch of
  an unknown artist. He never saw the live animal.
  Does this look like a real rhinoceros? Why or why
  not? It is possible that this was an extinct
  rhinoceros or that armor was put on the animal.
  What do you think?

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The Engraving Process

• Engraving, a new technique in the 15th century,
  consists of a process in which an image is
  scratched (engraved) onto a metal plate
  (generally copper), then inked, and printed onto
  paper.
• The main tools used were a type of carver tool
  called the burin.
  

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Dürers Engravings

• Dürer engraved many pictures that illustrated
  stories and symbols of Christianity. Because most
  people were illiterate (did not know how to read
  and write), the paintings of the time served as a
  way to teach people about religion.
• The stories reproduced in the pictures had many
  details. It takes a careful eye to spy
  everything that is in the picture.
  
• Can you spy a snake eating an apple, a bull, a
  parrot, Dürers name? What else can you see?
  

Adam and Eve
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Angels Restraining the Four Winds
What do you think this print is about? Can you
spy the
4 winds? What are they doing?
What do you think the people are doing?
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Art Response

• Make engravings with scratch art or aluminum
  foil.
  
• Make woodcut-like pictures with rubber stamps or
  potato stamps.
  
• Draw self-portraits using a mirror.
• Make engravings on Styrofoam trays and ink/paint
  them lay paper on top.