Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, gouache on vellum, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Armand Hammer Collection. 

A versatile German artist of the Renaissance period, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was a painter, draftsman and printmaker from the city of Nuremberg, a prominent artistic center in Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Through June 9, the Albertina Museum in Vienna will lend to the National Gallery of Art in Washington 118 works by Dürer for the exhibition Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina. 

Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia 1, 1514, engraving, Albertina, Vienna. 

Albrecht Dürer, A Venetian Lady, 1495, pen, gray and black ink, brush and brown ink, gray wash, Albertina, Vienna. 

Late fifteenth century Italian dress. A high-waisted style composed of three layers--chemise, undergown and overgown. 

Albrecht Dürer, Nuremberg Woman Dressed for a Dance, 1500, watercolor, pen and gray-black ink, Albertina, Vienna. 

The pleated outer "kleid" (dress) that women wore in the Germanic countries. 

Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, engraving, Albertina, Vienna. 

Influenced by Italian theory, Dürer was drawn to the idea that the perfect human form corresponded to a system of measurements and proportion. In Adam and Eve, Dürer's human form is shown in symmetrical, idealized poses with figures reminiscent of fifteenth century Hellenistic sculpture.  

Albrecht Dürer, Saint Jerome in His Study, 1514, engraving, Albertina, Vienna. 

The exhibition conveys Dürer's talent as a draftsman as well as his artistic development. Sketches, studies, woodcuts, engravings, watercolors, and etchings illustrate a full range of subjects from detailed renderings of the natural world to portraits and landscapes.

National Gallery of Art, on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue N.W.