Albrecht Durer and His Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist

Albrecht Dürer is the most significant and admired artist of the northern Renaissance. Tracing his work and influence from his earliest career to his powerful posthumous role within German culture, this richly illustrated book surveys all of the artist's best-known prints as well as numerous drawings and watercolors.

The catalogue of a greatly anticipated exhibition of Dürer's work in England--including loans of many precious works rarely seen by the public--the volume features 85 color and 267 black-and-white illustrations. It follows Dürer's career from his first work in the medieval tradition of Martin Schongauer, through his Italian education in the classical tradition, to his sophisticated development of the woodcut and engraving techniques that changed the history of printmaking. The book examines Dürer's long-lived influence, from the obsession of artists and collectors with his work during the late sixteenth century to the iconic status he acquired amid the rise of German nationalism in the nineteenth. It considers how the popularity of his images migrated into a range of materials as diverse as porcelain and banknotes. This assessment of his art and legacy concludes with a contemplation of Dürers famous print, Melancholia, written by the Nobel Prize-winning German novelist Günter Grass, himself a printmaker.

Offering a much-needed fresh look at the work of a major Renaissance artist, this handsome book is certain to deepen the broad international appreciation that Dürer's work already enjoys.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

The British Museum

December 5, 2002 - March 23, 2003

Giulia Bartrum is an Assistant Keeper of Prints and Drawings at The British Museum. Her publications include "German Renaissance Prints 1490-1550." Gü nter Grass is the author of "The Tin Drum" and dozens of books of fiction, poetry, and criticism. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999. Joseph Leo Koerner, Professor of Art History at the University College London, is the winner of the 1992 Mitchell Prize for the History of Art and the author of "The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art." Ute Kuhlemann is a doctoral candidate at the University College London.

GUNTER GRASS (1927 2015), Germany's most celebrated contemporary writer, attained worldwide renown with the publication of his novel The Tin Drum in 1959. A man of remarkable versatility, Grass was a poet, playwright, social critic, graphic artist, and novelist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1999.

Professor of Art History at the University College London, is the winner of the 1992 Mitchell Prize for the History of Art and the author of The Moment of Self-Portaiture in German Renaissance Art.

Ute Kuhlemann is a doctoral candidate at the University College London.