Kirjahaku

During the nineteenth century, Albrecht Dürer’s art, piety, and personal character were held up as models to inspire contemporary artists and—it was hoped—to return Germany to international artistic eminence. In this book, Jeffrey Chipps Smith explores Dürer’s complex posthumous reception during the great century of museum building in Europe, with a particular focus on the artist’s role as a creative and moral exemplar for German artists and museum visitors.In an era when museums were emerging as symbols of civic, regional, and national identity, dozens of new national, princely, and civic museums began to feature portraits of Dürer in their elaborate decorative programs embellishing the facades, grand staircases, galleries, and ceremonial spaces. Most of these arose in Germany and Austria, though examples can be seen as far away as St. Petersburg, Stockholm, London, and New York City. Probing the cultural, political, and educational aspirations and rivalries of these museums and their patrons, Smith traces how Dürer was painted, sculpted, and prominently placed to accommodate the era’s diverse needs and aspirations. He investigates what these portraits can tell us about the rise of a distinct canon of famous Renaissance and Baroque artists—addressing the question of why Dürer was so often paired with Raphael, who was considered to embody the greatness of Italian art—and why, with the rise of German nationalism, Hans Holbein the Younger often replaced Raphael as Dürer’s partner.Accessibly written and comprehensive in scope, this book sheds new light on museum building in the nineteenth century and the rise of art history as a discipline. It will appeal to specialists in nineteenth-century and early modern art, the history of museums and collecting, and art historiography.

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) was the greatest artist of the Northern European Renaissance. Dürer's virtuoso woodcuts and engravings ensured his fame throughout the Continent during his own lifetime. Yet he also produced an extraordinary output in other media – including painting, watercolour and drawing – which encompasses riveting portraits and self-portraits, grand altarpieces and meticulous studies of animals and nature.In this major new monograph, Jeffrey Chipps Smith examines the myths that have contributed to Dürer's legend, considering his life and career within the framework of a tumultuous epoch in European history. Taking account of the extensive scholarship on the artist, Smith provides fresh insights into many of his most notable works, uncovering the creative process behind them and their wealth of meanings and ideas. Central to Smith's focus is the historical and cultural ferment of pre- and post-Reformation Europe, as he traces Dürer's formative years in the Imperial free city of Nuremberg and his subsequent travels across Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The result is a vivid picture of the professional activity of a prolific and psychologically complex figure.With its detailed commentary and original research, this is both an authoritive and an approachable monograph – indispensable for the student or scholar, while certain to appeal to anyone interested in this brilliant artist.

Kunstkammern, art and curiosity cabinets housed in a dedicated room or suite of chambers, were often filled with thousands of diverse and sometimes shocking objects reflecting the bounty of nature and human creativity. These could range from a cherry pit carved with dozens of faces to an intricate drinking cup fashioned from a rhinoceros horn. Whether as a setting for personal contemplation or as a manifestation of the wealth and prestige of its owners, these proto-museums dazzled visitors of the time. This book offers the first in-depth comparative examination of the history, theory, organization and character of the major Kunstkammern in the Holy Roman Empire.

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) enjoyed European-wide fame during his lifetime. Dürer was not only a brilliant painter, but also a pioneering printmaker, experimental draughtsman, book publisher, first German art theoretician and amateur poet. His art was avidly collected, repeatedly copied in diverse media, and often forged. Then, with his death, the posthumous Dürers were born. This book addresses his afterlife or, more correctly, afterlives. Beginning with the heartfelt eulogies of his friends and the creation of contemporary portraits of the Nuremberg master, Dürer’s person, his likenesses, and his art have been celebrated for over five hundred years. Our contemporary Dürer is the subject of intense scholarly discussions on the one hand and of social and commercial popularization on the other hand.