Main works include "Melancholy", "Knights, Death and Demons", "The Tribulation of Christ", "Adam and Eve", etc.
Abrett Dürer (1471-1528), a German painter, printmaker and woodblock print designer, was a representative figure of the Northern Renaissance. Although he was born into a family of craftsmen in the Middle Ages and lived in a country where artists had the most underground status, he became the most independent and proud artist in Europe at that time. It pioneered self-portrait in Europe and is known as the "father of self-portrait".
Dürer studied art with his father when he was a boy, and he showed a special insight into painting at that time. At the age of 13, he used a silver needle to carve his first self-portrait realistically, and wrote on the painting: "When I was a child in 1484, I looked in the mirror and drew myself." At the age of 19, he painted for his father. He created a portrait, fully demonstrating his mature sketching skills, comparable to Leonardo da Vinci. Dürer worked for the painter Wagelmut for three years, which played a decisive role in his later creative development in printmaking art. After completing his apprenticeship, he left the studio and traveled along the Rhine River to major industrial cities in Germany. When Dürer was 23 years old, he married Aglasa Fourney, the daughter of a musician in his hometown. He formally established a studio not far from home and began painting portraits. By then he was already an influential artist. From 1490 to 1507, Dürer traveled to Basel, Strasbourg and Venice in Italy. He appreciated Mantegna's murals in Padua and paid a visit to Giovanni, whom he had admired for a long time. Bellini. Not only did he broaden his knowledge, he also began to study mathematics, geometry, Latin, classical literature and other subjects. His contacts with scholars were more frequent than with artists, which had a profound impact on his later exploration of painting. . From the time he returned to his hometown of Nuremberg in 1507 until 1515, he completed a number of oil paintings and altarpieces, such as "Adam and Eve". Established in 1512 as imperial painter to Emperor Maximilian the Great. Later, he traveled to Antwerp, Brussels, Malian, Cologne, Midburg, Bruges and Ghent, where he was well received. In July 1521, he returned to his hometown from the Netherlands. His physical strength was weak and he was repeatedly attacked by diseases, but he still continued to write. On April 6, 1528, the 57-year-old Dürer died.
Dürer was a strong German humanist scholar, an excellent art master, and an explorer who was never satisfied with the known world. He believed that true art is contained in nature, and whoever discovers it can master it. His lifetime works include woodcuts and other engravings, paintings, sketches and drawings. Among them, prints are the most influential. He is one of the best woodcut and etching artists. His major works include "Melancholy", "Knights, Death and Demons", "The Tribulation of Christ", "Adam and Eve", etc. Dürer's watercolor landscapes are among his greatest achievements, and the atmosphere and emotion in these works are extremely vivid. In terms of artistic style, although he was a pursuer and disseminator of Italian Renaissance art, the German tradition in which he was involved allowed his art to retain a bit of medieval Gothic legacy, while at the same time surprisingly being the first to demonstrate Out of Baroque characteristics. The great German poet Goethe said with admiration: "When we understand Dürer clearly, we know in truth, nobility and even beauty that only the great Italians can be equal to him." This kind of praise is of great significance to Dürer. Not too much at all.