What an amazing guy Albrecht Dürer was. If contemporary art is more your thing, these may be the sort of old prints that you wouldn’t pay much attention to. But he was not only very skillful, he was a real innovator, one of the first to achieve fame and good money from selling prints, an early self-portrait painter and he created a ‘Perspective Machine’ – one has been re-created for you to play with in the exhibition space.
He seemed to set himself challenges, even today few artists could produce such detailed and precise drawings on a woodblock print and he would include complicated architectural devices that would be beyond the skills of most. You can see his influence in the works by the other artists included in the show.
This is a great opportunity to see close up some of the finest prints from 500 years ago by the master.
Dürer and Italy
at the Lady Lever Art Gallery
28 May – 26 September 2010
Dürer and Italy has engraved classics by the Nuremberg artist alongside Italian works by Dürer’s contemporaries.
The combination illustrates a surprising cultural exchange that took place through the medium of prints from 1500 to Dürer’s death. He had a fascination with Italy from an early age and visited in 1494 and stayed there between 1505 and 1507.
A loan exhibition from the Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery, University of Glasgow.
