Albrecht Dürer’s style began in the traditions of Northern European realism (the practice of representing something accurately and true to life; unidealized treatment of subject matter), but also delved into the innovations of the Italian Renaissance. Trained as a painter and printmaker in his native Nuremberg, he traveled in Northern Europe and in Venice. He adopted humanistic learning that had taken hold in Italy, as well as making copies of Italian works and learning many of the lessons of Italian Renaissance art.
Dürer, a German artist, was trained to make both woodcuts and engravings and expanded the possibilities of each as seen in comparison to the previous generations' woodcut production seen above; he set a standard of pictorial effect in woodcuts that would transform the technique all over Europe. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse shows the figures from the Bible's Book of Revelations in a compact, overlapping group–a crowned rider, armed with a bow, on a typically white horse (Conquest); a rider with a sword, on a red horse (War); a rider with a set of scales, on a black horse (Plague and Famine); and a rider on a sickly pale horse (Death). Earlier artists simply lined up the horsemen in the landscape but not Dürer; he created a dynamic composition with voluminous figures that are realized with his expertly drawn line. Dürer probably employed a skilled carver who followed his drawings faithfully. Reviewing the video above, and reading pp. 375-376 in Janson's text, what have you learned about Dürer and his contributions to the world of Western art? Or, what difference can you note between Dürer's woodcut above and the Buxheim St. Christopher woodcut? Add a short comment by . Comments are closed.
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