The Course / History of German Art (Albrecht Dürer) 3/9

When:
October 16, 2018 @ 10:45 am – 12:45 pm
2018-10-16T10:45:00+01:00
2018-10-16T12:45:00+01:00
Where:
The Course at The University Women's Club
2 Audley Square
Mayfair, London W1K
UK
Cost:
£59.00
Contact:
Mary Bromley
020 7266 7815

Established in 1994, The Course offers innovative and exciting lectures in Art History, Literature, Music and Opera.

In this series on German Art, we will go from medieval to modern Germany through artists who would come to be a major influence not just on Northern art but also on the Italian Renaissance and ultimately European art. It will begin in the 1460s and demonstrate the interconnectivity of German artists through their itinerancy, their ingenuity, and rigorous work ethic. Each of the weekly lectures will take a look at an individual artist and in so doing take us from the medieval wood carvings of Tilman Riemenschneider, to the Renaissance art of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein the Younger, to the Baroque art of Adam Elsheimer; from Neo-Classicism to Romanticism and finally to German art of the 19th century with its impact on French Impressionism.

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

Here we will explore the early life and works of this precocious youth who was born in Nuremberg in 1471 and examine the enduring influence he had on the Italian Renaissance, not to mention what the Italian Renaissance had on him. The map of Europe was determined by the Holy Roman Empire and the countries we know today were groups of city states which shared aspects of language and culture. Trade between them allowed the spread of goods and ideas to flourish. He was one of the very first artists to write about himself and left a vast body of autobiographical writings, convinced that posterity would be interested in him. He wrote extensively on art practice including treatises on measurement and human proportion in order to educate future German artists because he was determined to counter the view that Germans were “a race of savage drunkards from a wild country with a poor climate, responsible for the destruction of ancient Rome”.