The Life of Albrecht Dürer, Told Through his Self-Portraits — I
The German artist Albrecht Dürer is regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance, his skill as a draughtsman and painter rivals his contemporary Leonardo. Dürer’s woodcuts and engravings brought him renown even during his lifetime.
Dürer grew up in the city of Nuremberg, at the time one of the most prosperous cities in Europe, a centre for publishing and luxury trades. It formed the basis for his pursuit of ambitions as a professional artist. Strong links to Italy, and especially Venice, made it possible for him to travel and study the new techniques and ideas of the Italian Renaissance. The system of trade in Nuremberg was markedly different to the rest of Europe, unlike other cities there was no guild system, and instead trades were moderated directly by the city council. Painting and printmaking were ‘free arts’ and as such Dürer was able to open a workshop to sell prints that a guild would have restricted.
Dürer was one of the first artists to independently depict himself, certainly no other before him had made so many self-portraits, nor had invested so much time and material into them. For centuries many artists had placed themselves in their work, characters that could be discerned by their direct gaze towards the viewer. However to design an entire work around oneself was innovative, and illuminating of the changing role of the artist in society, it was a sign of the shift away from servitude to the financial and creative independence of modern artists.
Perhaps what marked Dürer out for commercial success in a way that no prior artist had achieved was his mastery of engraving and print-making. His work could be printed in large numbers and sold to the masses, crafting a business out of his art that would result in him dying as one of the richest citizens of Nuremberg.
Our earliest surviving work by Dürer is this self-portrait. It reveals the pride and care he took in his artistry, as well as early tendencies of self-reflection.
Drawn at the age of thirteen, the inscription in the upper-right corner states: ‘This I have drawn from myself from the looking-glass, in the year 1484, when I was still a child — Albrecht Dürer.’
The piece is simple and uses the techniques learnt from his father however the level of skill displays his precocity and stands as a hint of the genius to come. We can see the pride in his own creations, and the self-conscious skill, that marks all of Dürer’s early self-portraiture.
This work now exhibited in the Albertina museum is still considered a masterpiece today. It demonstrates Dürer’s beginnings as an artist. He was taught metal point by his father, a successful Hungarian goldsmith who initially trained his son in the craft of goldsmithing. Two years after he drew this picture the young Dürer would abandon a life in this trade to become an artist. Although his father worried about the years Dürer wasted as an apprentice goldsmith, his early experience of working with the tools in the goldsmith’s workshop would prove invaluable to his later work as an engraver.
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Having shown a natural aptitude for drawing but feeling more drawn to painting than to the goldsmith’s trade, Dürer decided to become an artist and was apprenticed to Michael Wolgemut at the age of fifteen. In an excerpt from the family chronicle, the young man describes his break from goldsmithing:
‘He let me have my way, and in 1486, as one counts from the birth of Christ, on St Andrew’s Day, my father bound me apprentice to Michael Wolgemut, to serve him three years long.’
Wolgemut was the leading artist in Nuremberg at the time, notably prolific in woodcuts which he sold in large volumes. A figure central to the revival of the German woodcut, Wolgemut is remembered for his innovative depictions of volume and texture — techniques that Dürer would build on and surpass.
Wolgemut also illustrated for the Nuremberg Chronicle. A popular publication of the time, it was published by Anton Koberger, Dürer’s godfather. Throughout his life Dürer would draw on the large pool of highly experienced block cutters employed by his godfather and would call on him for advice with type-facing and translation. From this training in the workshop with Wolgemut, Dürer learnt the production of woodcuts and would go on to produce some of the most important work in the medium.
The young Dürer left Nuremberg in 1490 to take a Wanderjahre — a period of four years in which he would travel to learn skills from other artists around Germany.
He seems to have initially planned to work under Martin Schongauer, a Colmar-based artist considered the leading engraver of Northern Europe. However shortly before his arrival at Colmar in 1492, Schongauer died. Significantly influenced by Schongauer’s work, having come from a similar upbringing, Dürer would take on Schongauer’s practice of signing his work with a monogram. Dürer’s monogram is shown in the drawing above (top-middle).
Although having missed Martin Schongauer in Colmar, Dürer would meet and see the work of Schongauer’s brothers, the goldsmiths Caspar and Paul, and the painter Ludwig. Then in early 1492 Dürer would travel to Basel to stay with another of Schongauer’s brothers, the goldsmith Georg. The drawing shown above was produced at this time when Dürer was still travelling, he would go on to Strasbourg in 1493 and would see the sculptures of Nikolaus Gerhaert, a dutch master sculptor, famed for his vivid physical realism.
‘The more accurately your work represents life, the better it will appear.’ — Albrecht Dürer
Dürer’s skill as a draughtsman and training as a goldsmith is evident in the precise way he has rendered his three subjects. Throughout his life he often drew hands, sometimes for practice, often in his preliminary studies for larger works. Hands were evidently of great importance to Dürer and he analysed them in depth in his ‘Four Books of Human Proportion’ that he would publish towards the end of his life. Dürer’s drawing skill which developed from a young age would form the basis of all his further artistic endeavours.
When Dürer returned to Nuremberg, on the 7th July 1494 at the age of 23, he was married to Agnes Frey, an arranged marriage. Dürer’s first painted self-portrait was done in order to send to his fiancé. It is painted with oil on parchment and then pasted onto canvas and shows a young man about to be married. Lawrence Gowing once called this ‘the most French of all his pictures’. This use of expensive oil-paint in a self-portrait marked the change to the Northern Renaissance that Dürer would bring about, realigning the artist as an independent businessman and member of high society himself.
The artist has alluded to his impending marriage twice in this piece. The plant held is a variety of thistle that bears the German name: ‘Mannestreue’, meaning marital fidelity — a poignant message to send to one’s soon to be partner. Dürer, who often inscribed writing onto his work, wrote next to the date at the top of this painting ‘My affairs follow the course allowed to them on high’. Here Dürer signals that his marriage has been determined by God (or his family), and that he is not always free to make his own choices.
As well as a sign of his conjugal status this portrait also serves to show Dürer’s development artistically, he painted this work at the very beginning of his brilliant career marking the transition between his training and his active period during which he would produce his most well-known works. Soon after his return and marriage he left alone to visit Northern Italy. He was probably fleeing from a substantial outbreak of plague that had broken out in Nuremberg. This was a break from the usual training of Northern artists and would begin his Humanist studies.
Dürer has used a traditional composition which perhaps shows his lack of confidence in this medium. He is shown at a three-quarters angle against a dark background, he had to look at the mirror constantly to paint which has resulted in a slight irregularity in his pose.
The portrait is indicative of Dürer’s passage from youth to manhood, the face still has some of the childish features seen in the Self Portrait at the Age of Thirteen but the neck, hands and nose are those of an adult. The artist has further shown his youth by depicting himself in fashionable clothing of the time: he wears an elegant bluish jacket with red piping over an embroidered chemise and a red tasseled hat.
Dürer has shown the rigorous attention to detail that would characterise his late work through the fine prickles of thistle and the naturalistic folds of cloth. A precision of line owing to his early training as a goldsmith.
