Albrecht Dürer | Timeline

Albrecht Dürer (21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528) was a painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was still in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in communication with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 he was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I. Dürer is commemorated by both the Lutheran and Episcopal Churches.

Dürer's vast body of work includes engravings, his preferred technique in his later prints, altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, watercolours and books. The woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse series (1498), are more Gothic than the rest of his work. His well-known engravings include the Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the subject of extensive analysis and interpretation. His watercolours also mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium.

Dürer's introduction of classical motifs into Northern art, through his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists, has secured his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance. This is reinforced by his theoretical treatises, which involve principles of mathematics, perspective, and ideal proportions. (Intro from Wikipedia)

May 21, 1471 - Nuremberg - Albrecht Dürer is born

November 30, 1486 - Nuremberg - 15-year-old Albrecht Dürer starts an apprenticeship with Michael Wolgemut

January(?) 1(?), 1490 - Nuremberg - At the end of his apprenticeship, he signs his first painting, a portrait of his father Albrech Dürer the Elder =(START)

April 11, 1490 - Nuremberg - Dürer departs Nuremberg
January(?) 1(?), 1492 - Basel - Travels to Basel to stay with the goldsmith Georg Schongauer
August(?) 1(?), 1492 - Colmar (Today in France) - Welcomed by the Schongauer brothers, the goldsmiths Caspar and Paul and the painter Ludwig
October(?) 1(?), 1493 - Strasbourg (Today in France) - Experiences the sculpture of Nikolaus Gerhaert. Paints his first self-portrait
May 18, 1494 - Nuremberg - Dürer returns to Nuremberg
July 7, 1494 - Nuremberg - Dürer marries Agnes Frey, following an arrangement made during his absence
August 1(?), 1494 - Nuremberg - Outbreak of plague in Nuremberg. Dürer departs to Italy
October(?) 1(?), 1494 - Venice, Italy - Dürer arrives in Venice, via Augsburg, Innsbruck, Brenner Pass, Eisack Valley and Trento
January(?) 1(?), 1495 - Nuremberg - Returns to Nuremberg and opens his own workshop
April 1(?), 1496 - Nuremberg - Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, meets with Dürer and commissions the "Seven Sorrows Polyptych"

Self-portrait, 1498

January(?) 1(?), 1498 - Nuremberg - Dürer completes his most famous self-portrait when he is 26 years old
April 20, 1500 - Nuremberg - The Venetian artist Jacopo de Barbari visits Dürer in Nuremberg
September 20, 1502 - Nuremberg - Albrech Dürer the Elder dies
January(?) 1(?), 1504 - Nuremberg - "Adoration of the Magi" is completed
August(?) 1(?), 1505 - Nuremberg - Another outbreak of Plague in Nuremberg. Dürer departs for Venice again
December(?) 1(?), 1505 - Venice, Italy - Returns to Venice, this time as a well-known artist
January 6, 1506 - Venice - Dürer confirms to Willibald Pirkheimer that he had obtained the commission to paint the altarpiece of the church of the Guild of German merchants in Venice
February(?) 1(?), 1506 - Venice - Feast of the Rosary, commissioned by Jakob Fugger
March(?) 1(?), 1506 - Venice - "Christ among the Doctors" is completed, supposedly painted in just 5 days
August 18, 1506 - Venice - Letter to Willibald Pirckheimer: "I have a mind if the King comes to Italy, to go with him to Rome"
September 23, 1506 - Venice - Dürer finishes the altarpiece work. Letter to Willibald Pirckheimer: (He would leave Venice in a month's time, "but I must first take the portraits of some people I have promised"
October 13, 1506 - Venice - Last letter to Pirckheimer telling him that he would finish work in Venice in 10 days
October 25(?), 1506 - Bologna - Brief visit to Bologna "to learn the secrets of the art of perspective"
January 1, 1507 - Venice - In Venice at the start of the year
February 25(?), 1507 - Nuremberg - Returns to Nuremberg
July(?) 1(?), 1507 - Nuremberg - "Adam and Eve" is completed
January(?) 1(?), 1508 - Nuremberg - "Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand" is completed
January(?) 1(?), 1511 - Nuremberg - "Adoration of the Trinity" is completed
February 1(?), 1512 - Nuremberg - Emperor Maximillian I visits Nuremberg and gives Dürer several commissions

Knight, Death and the Devil, 1513

 January(?) 1(?), 1513 - Nuremberg - "Knight, Death and the Devil" engraving completed
February 16, 1513 - Nuremberg - Dürer is paid by the city council for the panel paintings with the portraits of Emperor Charlemagne and Emperor Sigismund
January(?) 1(?), 1514 - Nuremberg - "Saint Jerome in His Study" engraving completed
May 17, 1514 - Nuremberg - Dürer's mother dies
June(?) 1(?), 1514 - Nuremberg - "Melencolia I engraving" completed
January(?) 1(?), 1515 - Nuremberg - Woodcut of a Rhinoceros
June 28, 1518 - Augsburg - Dürer meets Maximillian I and makes a pencil drawing of him, to later paint the panel portrait

Rhinoceros, 1515

January 12, 1519 - (While in Nuremberg) - Maximilian I dies in Wels, Austria
July 8, 1520 - Nuremberg - Dürer, his wife Agnes and maid Susanna, depart to the Netherlands
July 9, 1520 - Bamberg - Dürer reaches Bamberg and offers a painting of the Virgin to the bishop
July 12(?), 1520 - Würzburg - Dürer reaches Würzburg
July 16, 1520 - Frankfurt - Dürer reaches Frankfurt
July 18, 1520 - Mainz - Dürer departs Frankfurt by boat and travels to Mainz
July 19, 1520 - Mainz - Departs to Cologne
July 23, 1520 - Cologne - Dürer arrives in Cologne. One of the people that gives him wine is Fugger (Jakob?)
July 26, 1520 - Sittard, Netherlands - Dürer arrives in the Netherlands. Spends the night at Stokkem
August 2, 1520 - Antwerp - Dürer arrives in Antwerp. He is met by the Fugger agent, Bernhaard Stecher. Dürer would produce several drawings in silverpoint, chalk and charcoal while there, spending most of his time with the portuguese factor and his wife

Rodrigo Fernandes de Almada

August 19, 1520 - Antwerp - Spectator of the Procession of Our Lady. He takes detailed notes of the event in his diary, describing the crowd, the festive atmosphere, and the beautiful attire and floats with biblical or hagiographical scene
August 27, 1520 - Brussels - Dürer goes to Brussels to paint King Christian II of Denmark's portrait. He visits the aztec treasure that Hernán Cortés had sent home to Emperor Charles V
October 6, 1520 - Aachen - Dürer arrives in Aachen
October 23, 1520 - Aachen - Albrecht Dürer attends the Coronation of Charles V
November 12, 1520 - Cologne - Back in Cologne with the Nuremberg businessmen while waiting for the emperor's decision regarding his petition for his pension. He visits the church of St.Ursula and buys a pamphlet of Luther's and a second copy of the University of Cologne's "Condemnation of Luther". On the same day, his news arrive of the confirmation of his pension at the same time of the papal bull ordering Luther's books burned
November 20, 1520 - 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands - Visit to 's-Hertogenbosch in his way back from Cologne to Antwerp. He is feted by the town's goldsmiths
November 22, 1520 - Antwerp - Back in Antwerp, his wife's purse is stoled in the Cathedral of Our Lady
December 3, 1520 - Arnemuiden | Zierikzee, Netherlands - Dürer takes a ship to Zierikzee after hearing that a whale washed ashore there. He arrives in Arnemuiden and visits Middelburg, but when he reaches Zierikzee, the flood had already washed away the whale. This is the place where Dürer gets sick
December(?) 4(?), 1520 - Bergen-op-Zoom - Visit to Bergen-op-Zoom on his way to see the whale at Zierikzee. He sees many flooded districts, where only the tops of roofs appear above the waters
December(?) 10(?), 1520 - Antwerp - Dürer returns to Antwerp without seing the whale

March 1(?), 1521 - Antwerp(?) - Dürer completes painting "St.Jerome in his Study", using a local old man as a model. He donates the painting to the head of the portuguese trade mission in the Netherlands, Rodrigo Fernandes de Almada
April 6, 1521 - Ghent | Bruges - Visit to Ghent. He admires Van Eyck's altarpiece. Sees Michelangelo's Madonna of Bruges
April 11, 1521 - Antwerp - Back in Antwerp. Dürer learns that he caught a disease in Zealand - Malaria
May 1(?), 1521 - Antwerp - Dürer attends the second marriage of landscape painter Joachim Patinir
June 6, 1521 - Mechelen - Dürer pays a visit to Lady Margaret of Austria, who refuses his portrait of the Emperor for being "horrible"
July 2, 1521 - Antwerp - Dürer attends a banquet held by the King of Denmark in honour of the Emperor - he paints a portrait of the King
July 12, 1521 - Antwerp - Dürer departs to Nuremberg
July 15, 1521 - Cologne - Dürer reaches Cologne, via Brussels, on his way home. His travel diary stops
July 20(?), 1521 - Nuremberg - Dürer returns to Nuremberg with malaria
July(?) 1(?), 1525 - Nuremberg - Dürer's book on mathematics "The Four books on measurement" is published at Nuremberg
March 1(?), 1525 - Nuremberg - Dürer contributes to the Nuremberg City Council's mandating Lutheran sermons and services
January(?) 1(?), 1527 - Nuremberg - Dürer's book on city fortifications is published
April 6, 1528 - Nuremberg - Albrecht Dürer dies, aged 56 =(END)

Bibliography

SINGER, Hans W. - Stories of the German Artists