Drawings of Albrecht Dürer

By Heinrich Wölfflin

Originally published in Munich in 1914, this selection of Albrecht Dürer's finest drawings by the great art historian Heinrich Wöfflin has long been regarded as a basic book in the arts. It has gone through many editions in Europe, even though this is its first appearance in English.
Professor Wöfflin selected 81 drawings by the master both for their individual interest and for the light they cast on Dürer's artistic growth and evolution. They begin with the self-portrait Dürer drew at the age of 13 in 1484 and end with his Head of Saint Mark, done in 1526, approximately two years before his death. Included are many favorites as well as many works that are little known. Of special interest are sketches that Dürer prepared for famous works in other media, such as drawings for the famous woodcut series The Life of the Virgin.
Professor Wöfflin's penetrating essay, which is considered one of the foundations of modern art criticism, has been translated by Stanley Appelbaum.
Several features have been added to this Dover edition of Dürer's drawings: a revised statement on ownership of originals; bibliographical note; Winkler numbers; and a new Foreword by Alfred Werner, art critic and lecturer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Jan 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9780486140902

Book preview

Dover Books on Fine Art

BEARDSLEY’S LE MORTE DARTHUR: SELECTED ILLUSTRATIONS, Aubrey Beardsley. (0-486-41795-6)

CHAGALL DRAWINGS: 43 WORKS, Marc Chagall. (0-486-41222-9)

DEGAS DRAWINGS OF DANCERS, Edgar Degas. (0-486-40698-9)

AN EDWARDIAN BESTIARY: 87 COLOR PLATES BY MAURICE & EDWARD J. DETMOLD, Maurice Detmold and Edward J. Detmold. Edited and with an Introduction by Jeff A. Menges. (0-486-46877-1)

THE DORÉ BIBLE ILLUSTRATIONS, Gustave Doré. (0-486-23004-X)

KIOWA AND PUEBLO ART: WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS BY NATIVE AMERICAN ARTISTS, Dover. (0-486-46441-5)

GREAT DRAWINGS OF NUDES: 45 WORKS, Edited by Carol Belanger Grafton. (0-486-42766-8)

GREAT SELF-PORTRAITS, Edited by Carol Belanger Grafton. (0-486-42168-6)

HOLBEIN PORTRAIT DRAWINGS, Hans Holbein the Younger. (0-486-24937-9)

GRAPHIC WORKS OF MAX KLINGER, Max Klinger. (0-486-23437-1)

JAPANESE WOODBLOCK FLOWER PRINTS, Tanigami Kônan. (0-486-46442-3)

LEONARDO DRAWINGS, Leonardo da Vinci. (0-486-23951-9)

LEONARDO’S ANATOMICAL DRAWINGS, Leonardo da Vinci. (0-486-43862-7)

THE SUN, THE IDEA & STORY WITHOUT WORDS: THREE GRAPHIC NOVELS, Frans Masereel. With a New Introduction by David A. Beronä. (0-486-47169-1)

POE ILLUSTRATED, Selected and Edited by Jeff A. Menges. (0-486-45746-X)

VISIONS OF CAMELOT: GREAT ILLUSTRATIONS OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS COURT, Selected and Edited by Jeff A. Menges. (0-486-46816-X)

ONCE UPON A TIME . . . A TREASURY OF CLASSIC FAIRY TALE ILLUSTRATIONS, Selected and Edited by Jeff A. Menges. (0-486-46830-5)

MICHELANGELO LIFE DRAWINGS, Michelangelo Buonarroti. (0-486-23876-8)

PICASSO LINE DRAWINGS AND PRINTS, Pablo Picasso. (0-486-24196-3)

WILLY POGÁNY REDISCOVERED, Willy Pogány. Selected and Edited by Jeff A. Menges. (0-486-47046-6)

RACKHAM’S COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS FOR WAGNER’S RING, Arthur Rackham. (0-486-23779-6)

THE ARTHUR RACKHAM TREASURY: 86 FULL-COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS, Arthur Rackham. Selected and Edited by Jeff A. Menges. (0-486-44685-9)

THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN WOODCUTS, James Reid. (0-486-46884-4)

REMBRANDT DRAWINGS: 116 MASTERPIECES IN ORIGINAL COLOR, Rembrandt van Rijn. (0-486-46149-1)

REMBRANDT LANDSCAPE DRAWINGS, Rembrandt van Rijn. (0-486-24160-2)

RODIN ON ART AND ARTISTS, Auguste Rodin. (0-486-24487-3)

RUBENS DRAWINGS: 44 PLATES, Peter Paul Rubens. (0-486-25963-3)

SARGENT PORTRAIT DRAWINGS: 42 WORKS, John Singer Sargent. (0-486-24524-1)

SCHIELE DRAWINGS: 44 WORKS, Egon Schiele. (0-486-28150-7)

OLD MASTER LIFE DRAWINGS: 44 PLATES, Edited by James Spero. (0-486-25233-7)

STEINLEN CATS, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen. (0-486-23950-0)

VAN GOGH DRAWINGS: 44 PLATES, Vincent van Gogh. (0-486-25485-2)

PHOBIA: AN ART DECO GRAPHIC MASTERPIECE, John Vassos. With an Introduction by David A. Beronä. (0-486-47032-6)

VERTIGO: A NOVEL IN WOODCUTS, Lynd Ward. With an Introduction by David A. Beronä. (0-486-46889-5)

ERIC SLOANE’S AMERICA: PAINTINGS IN OIL, Michael Wigley. With a Foreword by Mimi Sloane. (0-486-46525-X)

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THE WEIHERHÄUSCHEN.

in.

The picture shows a section of river landscape at sunset on a stormy day. The river is the Pegnitz; the building is the Weiherhäuschen (pond hut) situated on an island in the river not far from Nuremberg. The legend reads: weier Haws. Since this motif was used in the background of the engraving The Madonna with the Monkey, this drawing can be approximately dated 1500.

Copyright © 1970 by Dover Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

This Dover edition, first published in 1970, is a new translation of the tenth edition (1923) of Albrecht Dürer, Handzeichnungen, first published by R. Piper & Co., Munich, in 1914. A new Foreword has been written specially for the present edition by Alfred Werner. The Bibliographical Note provides further information on the specific features of this edition.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70–111607

International Standard Book Number

9780486140902

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

22352317

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Table of Contents

Dover Books on Fine Art

Title Page

Copyright Page

FOREWORD

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

LIST OF PLATES

DÜRER’S DRAWINGS

FOREWORD

Over the main entrance to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art are portrait medallions commemorating six supreme geniuses in the field of fine art. These great men—Bramante, Dürer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Velázquez—were honored in the last years of the nineteenth century, but if a committee of art scholars reviewed the selection today, it is likely that they would concur in the choice of Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) as one of the world’s half-dozen greatest artists. Because of his individualism (he would qualify as a great man by Emerson’s definition of one who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others), subjectivism and insatiable thirst for knowledge, he appeals to our own age of creative turmoil more strongly than does any other artist who had reached manhood by the end of the fifteenth century.

Dürer, unquestionably the major figure of the Northern Renaissance, is unique among his contemporary compatriots because he alone had nothing retrogressive and provincial about him; he alone came close to the ideal of a European artist and found admirers far beyond the German lands. This is how Erasmus of Rotterdam eulogized him:

What does he not express in monochromes, that is, in black lines? Light, shade, splendor, eminences, depressions; and, though derived from the position of one single thing, more than one aspect offers itself to the eye of the beholder. He observes accurately proportions and harmonies. Nay, he even depicts that which cannot be depicted . . . the whole mind of man as it reflects itself in the behavior of the body, and almost the voice itself. These things he places before the eye in the most pertinent lines—black lines, yet so that if you should spread on pigments you would injure the work . . . .

While one may hesitate to call Dürer a modern man, one can readily agree with Erwin Panofsky that he was the first German to be self-consciously an artist. Unwilling to content himself with the traditional role of an honest craftsman who produces pictures as a tailor makes coats and suits, he raised