Albrecht Durer-The Ascension of the Virgin-Woodcut 1510

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The great German artist of the Northern Renaissance, Old Master. � A rather interesting Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) woodcut from the Vincent Price Collection, labeled & titled "The Ascension of the Virgin". � B. 94; M. 206e; D. � Watermark with escutcheon. � I did have Sotheby's personally look at this Durer woodcut about ten years ago. � They indicated that this was from the original plate or woodcut, but a few years after Albrecht Durer's death? � The given value was from $1000-1500 ten years ago. � Also, a small repair that was expertly rendered within the lower left corner of the artwork, please see photo's. � Offering the Reaissance Master, A. Durer woodcut at 1.00 and sold to the high bidder. Condition: � Fine. � Minor foxing on the reverse with old hinging. Lower left corner is a small repair that was expertly rendered and one pinhole upper left corner. � The frame is in good condition, with glass. Dimensions: � 11 1/2"x 8 1/4" � Frame: � 21 1/2"x 17 3/4" This biography from the Archives of AskART: Please note: � Artists not classified as American in our database may have limited biographical data compared to the extensive information about American artists. Albrecht Durer was born in Nuremberg, Germany on May 21, 1471, the second of eighteen children in the family of a master goldsmith of some repute. Fifteen of the children of this family died at an early age and Durer's mother was often sickly, especially in the last years of her life. Although his father was not pleased with his artistic ambitions, at the age of fifteen, Durer was apprenticed to a painter.� .Durer was probably the greatest artist in German history. By adopting the new forms of the Italian quattrocento and connecting them to the already robust tradition of the German print, he almost single-handedly provoked the Northern Renaissance. For all-around inquisitiveness, he was surpassed only by his older contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci. Durer was interested in everything, from the nap of rabbit's fur to the theory of human proportion. His graphic work was a sustained paean to the diversity of the world. His curiosity was insatiable, and it drove him to constant journeying; Durer was the first cultural tourist. He seems to have been the first great artist to act on the idea that response to different cultures is part of the creative process itself. Even the disease that ruined his health, malaria, was a souvenir: a mosquito bit him when he ventured into the salt marches of Zeeland to draw yet another marvel, a dead whale.Durer started traveling in 1490; he was not quite nineteen. He had spent four years apprenticed to a master painter and engraver, Michael Wolgemut; he now set off to Colmar, to work under Martin Schongauer. But he took two years reaching Colmar, and when he did, Schongauer was dead. His restless wanderings across Europe included two trips to Venice and were capped by a year-long sojourn in The Netherlands, w he was a celebrity among celebrities, moving in a nimbus of fame through a circle that included Erasmus himself.In moving from Nuremberg to Venice, Durer reversed a whole direction of cultural priorities. The center to which German artists had previously looked were Bruges and Ghent in Flanders and the northern Gothic style shaped t by artists like the Van Eycks and Hugo van der Goes. What fascinated Durer was Italian humanism and all that flowed from the discovery of classical antiquity. But in fact, the trips to Venice did not radically change his style. They did give him confidence when Giovanni Bellini, the Venetian artist he most admired, became his friend. He said, " I am a gentleman, at home I am a parasite.", from which it appears that Durer knew more about the business of being a successful expatriate than most travelers ever discover.Durer married Agnes Frey in 1494, visited Venice that year for the first time, returned t again in 1505 and stayed until 1507. Meanwhile he built a great house which still stands on the castle hill in Nuremberg. Durer ... read more

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