What was Albrecht Durer's goal in life?

Answer 1

Albrecht Durer

Hello, I'm Albrecht Durer, I was born on May 21st, 1471 in the city of Nuremberg, which is located in Germany. My parents were Albrecht Durer the Elder and Barbara Holper. I was the third of eighteen brothers and sisters, most of them passed on early in their childhood.

When I turned thirteen, I worked as an apprentice under my father, who mastered his craft as a Metal smith and had a long association with the uppermost Metal smiths' of his generation.

When I turned fourteen, I asked my father if I could study painting. My father realized my talent, artistic ability and skill, relentlessly after I mastered the skills of goldsmith trading. I was apprenticed under the well known Michael Wolgemut, at the age of sixteen. This set the stage for one of the most unique, gifted, artistic talents of my time.

While studying with Michael Wolgemut, I was introduced to the art of woodcutting and stain glass making; moreover, I studied the form and technique of Schongauer's engravings. From May 1494 until late spring of 1495, I made my first trip to Italy. Upon returning home, I became the first Nuremberg to take up the art of engraving.

I was married to my wife "Agnes Frey" through a previous arrangement by both of our fathers; "Albrecht, Durer the Elder & Hans Frey," a famous and well known Silversmith. I also made the first book to be both illustrated and published by an artist.

I worked for my god-father Anton Kolberger, who was a very successful printer and publisher. Kolberger gave me my first opportunity to furnish engravings to a published book, which was roundly received. In the year 1502, following Albrecht the Elder's death, I took over my father's goldsmith business.

I was an inventor, designer of clothes, armor, goblets, fountains, etc... Following my second visit to Italy between 1505 through 1507, I went to Venice by way of Bologna to learn the "secret art of perspective" and other secrets. I went to Venice to see Luca Pacioli who developed ideas on the law of "central perspective," but the famous mathematician had moved to Florence. I traveled onward throughout until I reached Bologna. My mother Barbara passed on in the year 1514 during the same period in which I created my three "Master Engraved Plates."

Between the years 1512 and 1516 I had experimented with etching. Years after my return from Italy, I designed three "Master Engraved Plates." The first is titled; "Knight, Death and the Devil," the second; "Saint Jerome in his Study," and the last "Melencolia I." The plates were completed during the year of 1513 for the Knight, Death and Devil and 1514 for Saint Jerome in his Study, and Melencolia I. Throughout this period, I worked for the "Emperor Maximilian," performing many Royal Commissions undertaken on his behalf, until his death in 1519. My first patron was "Frederick the Wise," who commissioned a portrait from a youthful me in the year 1496. I finished an engraved portrait of "Frederick the Wise", establishing a retained friendship and association with Frederick throughout my lifetime.

Between1520 - 1521, I embarked with my wife, Agnes on a trip to the Netherlands. There were parties, along with meetings with the most important dignitaries & individuals throughout their travels. I was also a member of the Nuremberg Council, one of among a number of organizations which I had associations with and through my humanistic friends. Such as my lifelong friend Willibald Pirckheimer, who I had done an engraved portrait of in 1524. I wrote treaties on proportions and other books such as: The Small Passion series, The Large Passion Series, The Life of the Virgin, and The Engraved Passion and the Apocalypse.

On April 6, 1528, I died, leaving my legacy through documentary's for others to read, look, and learn.