Albrecht Dürer, Venus on a Dolphin, 1503, pen and black ink, overall: 21.2 x 21.2 cm, overall (framed): 41.2 40.5 4 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Bacchanal with Silenus (After Mantegna), 1494, pen and brown ink, overall: 29.8 x 43.3 cm, overall (framed): 53.2 x 66.3 x 4.4 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Andrea Mantegna, Baccanal with Silenus, c. 1475-80, engraving, overall: 31.1 x 46 cm overall (framed): 45.9 59.5 3.6 cm. Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Covered Bridge by the Haller Gate in Nuremberg, 1496/1498, watercolor, pen and black ink, overall: 16 x 32.3 cm, overall (framed): 35.4 x 50.9 x 4.5 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I, 1518, pen and brown ink and watercolors, overall: 45.5 x 250.8 cm, overall (framed): 68.4 252.5 8.8 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Left Wing of a Blue Roller, c. 1500 or 1512, watercolor and gouache on vellum, heightened with white, overall: 19.6 20 cm, overall (framed): 48.8 49.3 6.6 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Virgin Annunciate, 1491/1493, pen and brown ink on laid paper, overall: 16.4 x 14.3 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Woodner Collection, 1993.51.1.

Albrecht Dürer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, gouache on vellum, overall: 19.3 x 16.8 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Armand Hammer Collection, 1991.217.1.

Albrecht Dürer, Emperor Maximilian I, 1518, black, ocher, red and white chalk, heightened in white chalk, overall: 39.1 31.9 cm, overall (framed): 63.6 56.4 5.7 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Christ Child as Savior: A New Year's Greeting, 1493, tempera on vellum, overall: 11.8 x 9.3 cm, overall (framed): 42.8 x 38.8 x 3.4 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Great Piece of Turf, 1503, watercolor and gouache heightened with white, mounted on cardboard, overall: 40.8 x 31.5 cm, overall (framed): 67 57.7 6.5 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Fall of Man, 1510, woodcut, overall: 12.7 9.7 cm, overall (framed): 32.1 44 3.9 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Virgin and Child with a Multitude of Animals and Plants, c. 1503, watercolor, pen and blackish brown ink; lightly squared in black chalk downward from the head of the Madonna, overall: 31.9 x 24.1 cm, overall (framed): 56.3 x 49.1 x 3.8 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, A Woman in Netherlandish Dress Seen from Behind, 1521, brush and black ink, heightened with white, background with brush and black ink, on gray-violet prepared paper, overall: 20.8 21 cm, overall (framed): 47.9 x 40 x 3.9 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Agnes Dürer as Saint Ann, 1519, brush and gray, black, and white ink on grayish prepared paper; black background applied at a later date (?), overall: 39.5 x 29.2 cm, overall (framed): 64 x 53.4 x 4.4 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Death of the Virgin, 1509/1510, pen and brown ink, overall: 30 21.9 cm, ramed: 49.8 42.8 4.5 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Babylonian Whore, 1496/1498, woodcut, overall: 38.9 28.1 cm, overall (framed): 59 45 3.6 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait at Thirteen, 1484, silverpoint on prepared paper, overall: 27.3 19.5 cm, overall (framed): 51.7 43.1 4.5 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Four Female Nudes (The Four Witches), 1497, engraving, overall: 19.2 13.6 cm, overall (framed): 41.8 35.3 3.3 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

National Gallery of Art
4th and Constitution NW
202-737-4215
Washington. D.C.
Albrecht Dürer Watercolors
and Drawings from the Albertina
March 24-June 9, 2013

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) is widely considered the greatest German artist. Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria, has lent National Gallery of Art 118 works on paper by Dürer for Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina features nearly all of Dürer's finest watercolors and drawings from the collection of the Albertina, Vienna, as well as 27 of the museum's related engravings and woodcuts. The exhibition also includes 19 drawings and prints from the gallery collection.

Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina is a culmination of decades of acquisition, study, and exhibition of early German art at the Gallery. In 1999, the Gallery presented From Schongauer to Holbein, a survey exhibition of early German drawings based on the collections of Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and Kunstmuseum Basel. This loan from the Albertina, Vienna is the only other exhibition from a single collection of similar visual impact, quality, and importance.

"The generosity of the Albertina, Vienna in lending their superb works on paper by Albrecht Dürer is overwhelming, and augmented by our own works, this exhibition allows the Gallery to present a fresh and compelling look at Dürer's practice of drawing," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art, Washington. "We offer our visitors the opportunity to share in the knowledge, appreciation, and pleasure of this extraordinary artist's work."

The exhibition is organized by National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with the Albertina, Vienna.

Exhibition Highlights Dürer's paintings are highly prized, but his most influential works are his drawings, watercolors, engravings, and woodcuts, executed with his distinctively northern sense of refined precision and exquisite craftsmanship.

The exhibition is organized chronologically in 14 thematic groups that convey Dürer's talent as a draftsman as well as his artistic life, interests, and development. From detailed renderings of the natural world and investigations of proportion and the human body to family members and official portraits, landscapes, religious and allegorical themes, intensely personal reflections, and even studies of drapery and designs for decorative arts, the 137 works by Dürer on view give insight into his artistic development and creative genius. Finished compositions that functioned as independent works of art, colorful watercolors of nature and costumes, as well as quick sketches and studies for paintings and prints, woodcuts, engravings, and etchings all illustrate the full range of his subjects.

The exhibition includes many of the artist's most breathtaking works on paper, such as the watercolor The Great Piece of Turf (1503), a sublime nature study of the Renaissance; the chiaroscuro drawings An Elderly Man of Ninety-Three Years (1521) and The Praying Hands (1508), surely one of the most famous drawings in the world; and the amazingly precocious silverpoint Self-Portrait at Thirteen (1484), possibly the earliest self-portrait drawing by any artist. Such complete and finished works are balanced by quick sketches of, for example, his young bride-to-be or the Antwerp harbor.

In drawing, with the possible exception of colored chalks, Dürer used the complete range of traditional techniques to record convincing details of nature, people, and places as well as to re-create historical and mythological events and fantastic visions. In printmaking Dürer revolutionized the art of woodcut to achieve ranges of subject and scale, light, and form. He created engravings not only powerful in image but also unparalleled in craftsmanship and technique, and he experimented with etching and drypoint.

Albrecht Dürer and the Albertina Albrecht Dürer was the reigning genius of the Renaissance in northern Europe, just as Leonardo da Vinci was for the Renaissance in Italy. Born in Nuremberg in 1471, Dürer grew up in an environment of late Gothic courtly grace and religious intensity as the city, a center of imperial politics, economics and trade, scholarship and culture, was being transformed by new influences. He traveled to Italy twice to pursue the new learning and artistic advances surging there.

The collection of Dürer's drawings and watercolors at the Albertina, Vienna is unequaled. It is not only one of the largest collections of works by Dürer in the world, but it is also distinguished by the number of the artist's greatest masterpieces. The Albertina's works by Dürer have been acquired over many years, but the museum's ability to amass such a collection of world masterpieces results from primary sources that go back directly to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Dürer was his favorite artist. Rudolf II used imperial ambassadors and the machinery of state to succeed in his purchases, including acquisitions from the Imhoff family in Nuremberg, whose works were among Dürer's personal estate. In 1588 the emperor offered Willibald Imhoff's family an entire domain of Bohemia in exchange for being able to acquire these works.

Exhibition Curator and Catalogue The exhibition curator is Andrew Robison, A. W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art.

Published by the National Gallery of Art and DelMonico Books, an imprint of Prestel Publishing, the fully illustrated catalogue presents the Albertina's magnificent collection of Dürer's watercolors, drawings, and prints, as well as the Gallery's related works.

The volume features essays by Robison; Klaus Albrecht Schröder, director of the Albertina, Vienna; and Ernst Rebel, former professor at the School of Arts, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, as well as entries by scholars such as Berthold Hinz, former professor for the history of art, Kunsthochschule Kassel; Alice Hoppe-Harnoncourt, research associate, Picture Gallery, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Matthias Mende, former chief curator of the graphic art collection and Dürer's House, Museen der Stadt Nürnberg; Christof Metzger, curator of German drawings and prints, Albertina, Vienna; Eva Michel, curator of Netherlandish drawings and prints, Albertina, Vienna.

The 328-page catalogue includes 205 color plates and is available in March 2013 in softcover and hardcover for purchase in the Gallery Shops. To order, please visit http://shop.nga.gov/; call (800) 697-9350 or (202) 842-6002; fax (202) 789-3047; or e-mail mailorder@nga.gov.

Albrecht Dürer, An Arm with a Dagger, 1508 (?), brush in gray and black, gray wash, heightened with white on green prepared paper, with several pentimenti, overall: 22.8 19.6 cm, overall (framed): 45.1 41.5 3.9 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Men's Bath, 1496/1497, woodcut, overall: 38.9 x 28.3 cm, overall (framed): 55.2 x 44.1 x 3.6 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Visitation, c. 1504, woodcut, overall: 30.1 x 21.2 cm, overall (framed): 49.3 40.5 3.6 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Saint Jerome Penitent in the Wilderness, 1496/1497, engraving, overall: 31.5 x 22.3 cm, overall (framed): 53.4 43.5 3.3 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Betrothal of the Virgin, c. 1504, woodcut, overall: 29.3 20.8 cm, overall (framed): 49.3 40.5 3.6 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, A Youthful Standard Bearer, 1518, pen and black ink, overall: 42.3 x 29.8 cm, overall (framed): 64.3 51.5 3.6 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Hans Hoffmann, A Red Squirrel, 1578, watercolor and gouache over traces of graphite on vellum, overall: 25 x 17.8 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Woodner Collection, 1991.182.5.

Albrecht Dürer, An Elderly Standard Bearer, 1518, pen and black ink, overall: 42.1 28.5 cm, overall (framed): 64.5 50.2 3.6 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Head of a Young Woman, 1506, brush and gray ink, heightened with white on blue paper, overall: 28.5 x 19 cm, overall (framed): 50.8 40.7 4 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Standard Bearer: The Bohemian Trophy, 1518, pen and black ink, overall: 43.4 30.5 cm, overall (framed): 65.4 52.3 3.7 cm , Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Holy Family, 1511, woodcut, overall: 23.8 16 cm, overall (framed): 44.2 36 3.7 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

lbrecht Dürer, A Pastoral Landscape with Shepherds Playing a Viola and Panpipes, 1496/1497, brush with watercolor and gouache heightened with pen and ink and gold, pasted back onto page 1 of Aldus Manutius' first edition of Theocritus' Idylls and other texts (Venice, February 1496), page size: 31 x 20.3 cm, overall size (book closed): 32.4 x 21.6 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Woodner Collection 2005.1.1.

Albrecht Dürer and Workshop, Christ before Pilate (Green Passion), 1504, pen and black ink, heightened with white on green prepared paper, overall: 28.7 18.6 cm, overall (framed): 50.7 39.9 3.9 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Felix Hungersperg, 1520, pen and brown ink, overall: 16 10.5 cm, overall (framed): 39.9 33.5 3.5 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Mein Agnes, 1494, pen and black ink, overall: 15.7 x 9.8 cm, overall (framed): 44.3 x 37.9 x 4.2 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Nuremberg Woman Dressed for Church, 1500, watercolor, pen and black ink, overall: 32 x 20.4 cm, overall (framed): 50.1 x 38.3 x 3.4 cm. Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer and Workshop, The Entombment (Green Passion), 1504, pen and black ink, heightened with white on green prepared paper, overall: 29.6 18.3 cm, overall (framed): 50.7 39.9 3.9 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, A Venetian Lady, 1495, pen and gray and black ink, brush and brown ink, gray wash, overall: 29 x 17.3 cm, verall (framed (double-sided)): 52.1 x 40.2 x 4.1 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Lucretia, 1508, brush and gray and black ink, gray wash, heightened with white on green prepared paper, overall: 42.3 x 22.6 cm, overall (framed): 65.4 x 47.1 x 4.1 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I, 1522, woodcut, overall: 45 222.8 cm, overall (framed): 66.5 250.7 5.7 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, The Last Supper, 1523, woodcut, overall: 21.3 x 30.1 cm, overall (framed): 40.6 49.3 3.6 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Reclining Nude, 1501, brush and pen with black ink, gray wash, heightened in opaque white on green prepared paper; compass hole and construction lines in the area of the belly, overall: 17 x 22.1 cm, overall (framed): 38.1 x 42.7 x 3.6 cm, Albertina, Vienna.

Albrecht Dürer, Design for Decoration of the Town Hall of Nuremberg, 1521, Pen and brown ink, with watercolor, silhouetted and mounted on another sheet, 256 x 351 mm, The Morgan Library & Museum; I, 257.

Albrecht Dürer, Design for the Pommel Plate of a Saddle, Pen and dark brown ink, 220 x 287 mm, The Morgan Library & Museum; I, 256.

Albrecht Dürer, Abduction on Horseback, 1516, Pen and brown ink, with traces of underdrawing in, black chalk; inscribed with stylus, 251 x 201 mm, Gift of J. P. Morgan, Jr., 1924; I, 257a.

Albrecht Dürer, Portrait of the Artist’s Brother Endres, ca. 1518, Charcoal, background later washed with white lead, 324 x 262 mm, Gift of Mrs. Alexander Perry Morgan in memory of Alexander Perry Morgan; 1973.17.

Albrecht Dürer, Melancholia, 1514, Engraving, 240 x 186 mm, Bequest of Belle da Costa Greene; 1950.33.

Albrecht Dürer, Constructed Head of a Man in Profile, ca. 1512-13, Pen and brown ink and dark brown wash, 244 x 188 mm, Gift of J. P. Morgan, Jr., 1924; I, 257b.

The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street
212-685-0008
New York
Clare Eddy Thaw Gallery
Defining Beauty: Albrecht Dürer at the Morgan
May 18-September 12, 2010

"What beauty is, I know not, though it adheres to many things . . . "

— Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), preeminent master of the German Renaissance, transformed drawing in Northern Europe. Using his unrivaled talent as a draftsman and the force of his powerful artistic personality, Dürer tirelessly promoted drawing as a medium, creating works of exceptional beauty and remarkable technical skill.

Eight extraordinary drawings by Dürer demonstrate the variety and dynamism of his draftsmanship. Exhibitions focused on Dürer's drawings are rare, and this marks the first time in more than 20 years that the Morgan's Dürer holdings are displayed together. Included are prints and treatises by the artist..

"Albrecht Dürer was one of the greatest, most inventive artists of all time," said William M. Griswold, director of The Morgan Library & Museum. "His range and skill in a variety of media are extraordinary, and his pursuit of the idea of beauty singular and obsessive. To experience the Morgan's spectacular collection of Dürer drawings in the small, almost chapel-like setting of the Thaw Gallery is to come face to face with pure genius."

Among the highlights of the exhibition that demonstrate Dürer's preoccupation with beauty are his seminal engraving of 1504, Adam and Eve, along with its extant related preparatory drawing. To create the work, Dürer joined several sheets of paper, then unified the composition with brown wash to create a balance between the two figures. His efforts to resolve the composition are evident; both figures hold the apple that led to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Ever cognizant of his authorship, Dürer added his monogram and date to the drawing. This image, perhaps more than any other, documents how the artist strove to create both beauty and harmony in depictions of the human form.

Demonstrating the persistence of Dürer's fascination with proportions is another work from about a decade later, Head of a Man in Profile. Overlaying a grid on a man's head delineated in pen and brown and red ink, Dürer used geometry to construct a precise profile. Also on view is a 1532–34 edition of his landmark treatise, Four Studies on Human Proportion, a book in which he articulated his artistic philosophy and the centrality of proportion in his depictions of the human body.

Dürer did not limit himself exclusively to a mathematical ideal. He also turned to the natural world as a source. During his lifetime, empirical observation became more valued in northern Europe, as exemplified by the accurate topographical view of his hometown in the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493. One of the most famous printed books of the 15th century, published by Dürer's godfather, Anton Koberger. A similar commitment to observation is evident in the rugged features and fuzzy textures of Dürer's unidealized charcoal portrait of his brother Endres. For Dürer, perfection could exist in no single individual; he appreciated humanity's variation and even its flaws.

Dürer also saw beauty in the spiritual realm. Kneeling Donor, a study for his altarpiece Feast of the Rose Garlands for the church of San Bartolomeo in Venice, reveals how deeply he was inspired by religious subjects. He adopted the technique of brush and black ink with gray wash and white heightening on blue paper during his 1505-7 stay in Venice. Also on view is one of his most famous engravings, Melancholia I. This enigmatic image of the allegorical figure of Melancholy, her head leaning upon her hand, has been seen alternatively as a statement on artistic creativity and as evidence of Dürer's interest in ancient debates over the definition of beauty.

In other instances, Dürer turned to the aesthetic tradition of Germany, Nuremberg in particular, for inspiration. Dominating his drawing Abduction on Horseback is a hairy brute resembling the Wild Man, a folk figure with a long tradition in German art. The frenetic pen lines may be explained by the fact that the drawing was made in preparation for one of Dürer's six known etchings — a new technique in northern Europe. He drew from rich metalwork in Nuremberg as well; both his father and father-in-law were renowned gold- and coppersmiths for which the city was famous. Dürer's intricate design in pen and dark brown ink for the pommel plate of a saddle shows the artist's commitment to this decorative tradition. Further documenting his inventiveness is the bright, multicolored watercolor for a wall scheme in Nuremberg town hall, a civic center and source of local pride whose decoration was important to the city.

In his pursuit of beauty, Dürer devoted careful attention to every aspect of artistic production. On view in the exhibition are a woodcut, its associated woodblock, and a letter to the patron for whom it was made. In the letter Dürer wrote, "Please let it be as it is. No one could improve it because it was done artistically and with care. Those who see it and who understand such matters will tell you so."

Defining Beauty: Albrecht Dürer at the Morgan is organized by Elizabeth A. Nogrady, Moore Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Morgan Library & Museum.

Albrecht Dürer, Folio from Four Books on Human Proportion (detail), Nuremberg: 1532/34, Gift of Mr. John P. Morgan II in memory of Mrs. Junius S. Morgan, 1981; PML 77029.2.

Albrecht Dürer, Coat of Arms of Michael Behaim, ca. 1520, Woodcut, 295 x 206 mm, The Morgan Library & Museum; 2006.81.

Albrecht Dürer, Original woodblock for Coat of Arms of Michael Behaim, Wood, 282 x 197 mm, Gift of J. P. Morgan; AZ127.

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Kneeling Donor, 1506, Brush and black ink, gray wash, heightened with white gouache, with accents in pen and dark black ink, on blue paper, 323 x 198 mm, Signed with monogram and dated, at lower left, in brown ink, 1506. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1910; I, 257c.