The immortal journey of Dürer

Forget Leonardo: there is a case to be made for the German artist being the true Renaissance great, argues Michael Prodger

- Michael Prodger

ASK the question ‘Who was the Renaissance’s greatest Renaissance man’ and the most common responses are likely to be Leonardo, then Michelangelo and Raphael. So tightly is the Renaissance interwoven with its Italian heartlands that few would think to look beyond it. Yet, take a step back, and a realistic contender for the most talented and varied man of the age would not be Italian at all, but German: Albrecht Dürer.

This year marks the 550th anniversary of Dürer’s birth, so it is a fitting time to remember exactly what it was that made him great. Dürer (1471–1528) was a contemporary of the big three—indeed, he corresponded with both Leonardo and Raphael—and was their equal in accomplishments. He might not have been a visionary scientist in the style of Leonardo or a sculptor, architect and poet like Michelangelo, but he was, nevertheless, a painter of the highest skill, a printmaker of genius and the author of treatises on measurement and fortifications. He was more widely travelled than his Italian peers and was probably a religious reformer for good measure.

'The Emperor noted Dürer was “already a nobleman for the excellence of his art'

His achievements were all the more impressive because of the country and city of his birth. Nuremberg was prosperous and cultured but was no Florence or Urbino, so Dürer did not have exposure to the buildings, artworks and courtly taste of the earlier Renaissance generation to inspire him. Nor were Germany’s cultural and trading relationships with Italy as developed as those of the Low Countries. He was an artist from the fringes with no alternative but to forge his own way.