Dürer and Italy

About the artist

'Half-Length Portrait of Dürer', 1645
by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677)

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was the first great artist to achieve
fame through prints. His meticulous use of detail, outstanding
technique and clever use of perspective and the human figure
made his work extremely popular. Dürer’s home city Nuremberg
and his family had a significant influence on his success. Nuremberg was a prosperous city on the trade route between
Italy and Northern Europe and a centre of Renaissance learning.
Dürer’s father was a goldsmith and his godfather ran an
important publishing house which traded with Venice. In this
environment, Dürer witnessed the production of prints for books
and learnt about artistic developments in Italy.

Dürer established his own workshop in Nuremberg in 1495 after
his first journey to Italy. Italian influence is evident in his early
engravings. By 1505, when Dürer went again to Italy, he had made
many of the woodcuts that make up his great Biblical series,
as well as engraved masterpieces such as the 'Prodigal Son',
'St Eustace' and 'Adam and Eve' that in turn made a dramatic impact on Italian art.

Dürer is one of the best documented artists of the Renaissance.
Letters, a journal and a family chronicle tell us about his artistic
relationship with Italy. In 1568 the first art historian Giorgio
Vasari also described the creative relationship between Dürer
and the Italian artist Raphael and how vital prints were for artists
as sources of inspiration and as channels of communication with
other European art centres.