Albrecht Dürer Online at the NGC
Works on Paper on National Gallery of Canada's CyberMuse Website
The National Gallery of Canada's CyberMuse website describes the life, prints and engravings of German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer.
CyberMuse, the online research tool of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, has an innovative feature devoted to the life, career, woodcuts, engravings and etchings of German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528).
Albrecht Dürer and the Graphic Arts
The son of a prominent Nuremberg goldsmith, Albrecht Dürer learned his father's trade while a child. His education included metal engraving, the techniques of which he applied to incising copper plates for printmaking. Dürer's painting apprenticeship in the 1480s also involved training in the design of woodcut illustrations for books. The precocious artist's visual acuity allowed him to excel quickly in the graphics arts, evident in psychologically penetrating images for the Apocalypse (1498) and portions of his Large Passion (published in 1511). Within a brief period of time, Dürer elevated printed works on paper to a level of respectability comparable to that of painting, manuscript illumination and sculpture during the Renaissance.
Dürer on the CyberMuse Website
After a short audio introduction of Northern Renaissance music, CyberMuse's Albrecht Dürer feature is divided into five easily navigable sections.
- Looking Back compares Dürer's graphic works with those of his teachers and assistants. Dr. John Collins, the NGC's Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings, describes the artist's life, work and influences in nine-part video and PDF format sequences. Woodcut, engraving and etching, the three printmaking techniques most favored by Albrecht Dürer, are defined.
- Looking Now presents four of the artist's most famous prints in high resolution: Melancholia (1514), Saint Eustace (ca. 1501), Knight, Death and the Devil (1513) and Adam and Eve (1504). Left-clicking on each image's components reveals interesting facts about the respective work on paper.
- Looking Foward introduces the reader to the amazing science of Paper Conservation. Vivid behind-the-scenes views are supplemented by a glossary of 11 important terms.
- The Gallery features digital images of the museum's 69 illustrations by Albrecht Dürer.
- The Bibliography lists seven works on Dürer (four in French) and six on Paper Conservation. All are recent scholarly publications.
Students of Northern Renaissance art and culture will benefit from the National Gallery of Canada's online introduction to its drawings and prints by Albrecht Dürer, arguably the period's most significant graphic artist.
Sources:
- Bartrum, Guilia, et al. Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist (exh. cat.). London: The Trustees of The British Museum, 2002.
- Erwin Panofsky. The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
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