Albrecht Dürer's House

Timetable of Dürer's Life and Work

1471

Born 21 May, third child of goldsmith, Albrecht Dürer the elder, and Barbara Dürer née Holper. Dürer's father had come from Hungary (Ajtos) to settle in Nuremberg. Dürer's godfather was the printer and publisher Anton Koberger.

1477

Until about 1483 attended public "Latin School".

1484

First surviving work, a self portrait (silver pencil drawing, Vienna, Albertina).

1485

Apprenticeship as goldsmith in his father's workshop.

1486

November 30, start of apprenticeship in the painting workshop of Michael Wolgemut (until 1489).

1490

After Easter, start of journeys. First surviving painting: portrait of his father (Florence, Uffici).

1492

Journeyman in Basle. Woodcut illustrations for Sebastian Brant's "Ship of Fools".

1493

First painted self portrait (Paris, Louvre).

1494

Return from journeys. On July 7, marriage to Agnes Frey, a coppersmith's daughter (Agnes died in 1539 after a childless marriage). In autumn, start of the first journey to Italy.

1495

Stay in Venice. Return to Nuremberg, landscape water colours from Southern Tyrol.

1496

First commissions from Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony.

1497

Erection of own first printing press in his father's house "Unter der Vesten " (Below the Castle). Recruiting of agents for the sale of his printed graphic works. Dürer used the famous AD signature for the first time.

1498

Dürer was awarded citizenship of the City of Nuremberg. The series of woodcuts on the "Apocalypse" made Dürer famous.

1500

Start of theoretical work on the theory of proportions, self-portrait in fur jacket (Munich, Pinakothek).

1502

September 20, father's death. Work on the series "Life of the Virgin". Famous water colour of "Field Hare" (Vienna, Albertina).

1504

Completion of "Paumgartner Altar" (Munich, Pinakothek). Copperplate engraving of "Adam and Eve".

1505

Late summer: start of second Italian journey.

1506

Stay in Venice, short stays in Bologna, Ferrara and Perugia, maybe even in Rome. Painting of the "Feast of the Rosary" (Prague, National Gallery).

1507

Return journey to Nuremberg. Painting of "Adam and Eve" (Madrid, Prado). Start of work on copperplate engravings of the Passion (until 1512).

1508

Design for the painting of "All Saints". Main work on the "Heller Altar" (destroyed). Delivery of the "Martyrdom of Ten Thousand Christians" to Frederick the Wise (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum).

1509

Start of work on the woodcut edition of the "Large Passion" (until 1511). Purchase of the house on Tiergärtnertor (so-called Dürer-Haus). Member of the Greater Council of his hometown of Nuremberg.

1510

Preliminary work on the Emperor Paintings for the chamber containing the ensigns of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Completion of "All Saints painting" (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum).

1512

Start of work for Emperor Maximilian I. Purchase of a garden outside the Tiergärtnertor.

1513

Paintings of Charlemagne and Emperor Sigismund put up in the chamber containing the ensigns of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum).

1514

Charcoal drawing of his sick mother (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett) who died on May 16. Completion of the three major engravings: "Knight, Death and Devil", "St. Jerome in the Cell", and "Melencolia I".

1515

Completion of marginal drawings for the prayer book of Emperor Maximilian I, woodcuts for the Triumphal Arch and the Emperor's Triumphal Chariot. Dürer is rewarded with an annuity of one hundred guilders.

1516

Portrait of his teacher Wolgemut in his old age (Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum).

1517

Guest of Bishop Georg III of Limburg and Bamberg.

1518

Emperor Maximilian I portrayed by Dürer during the Imperial Diet in Augsburg. Experiments with etching techniques: ironplate etching "The Big Canon".

1519

Various painted versions of the portrait of Emperor Maximilian I who died that year (Vienna and Nuremberg). Visit to Switzerland with his friend, the imperial councillor and humanist, Willibald Pirckheimer.

1520

July 12, start of journey to the Netherlands, accompanied by his wife Agnes and their maid Susanne, to take part in the crowning of Emperor Charles V in Aachen. Meeting with Erasmus of Rotterdam.

1521

Return to Nuremberg. Supervision of the redecoration of the Great Council Chamber in Nuremberg City Hall. Sketches for a large painting of Mary (not executed).

1524

Portrait etchings of Pirckheimer and Frederick the Wise. Start of writing of family chronicle.

1525

Dürer's first book, the "Teaching of Measurement" was printed. Recording of a dream vision (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum).

1526

Gift of the paintings of the "Four Apostles" to the City of Nuremberg (Munich, Pinakothek). Portraits of Hieronymus Holzschuher and of Jakob Muffel (both Berlin).

1527

First edition of the "Treatise on Military Fortifications", later in 1528 of "Four Books on Human Proportions" (posthumous).

1528

April 6, Dürer's death. Buried in his parent-in-law's grave on Johannisfriedhof, Nuremberg (St. John's Graveyard).