Albrecht Durer Essay

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Albrecht Durer was born in Germany on May 21, 1471. The son of a goldsmith, Durer was trained as a metalworker at a young age. Later, he applied the same meticulous, exacting methods he learned in his apprenticeship to his woodcuts and engravings, notably the Four Horsemen of his Apocalypse series (1498), and his Knight, Death and Devil (1513). As a result, Durer was renowned for his detail and precision, and became one of the most influential painters of his time. Durer frequently traveled to Italy; most of his works were inspired by Italian artists such as Leonardo da Vinci. He also very strongly believed that geometry was an important skill for art; as his quoted goes “…the sole reason why painters of this sort are not aware of their own error is that they have not learnt Geometry, without which no one can either be or become an absolute artist.” In many of his paintings, Durer has special geometric figures. For example, his work Melancholia contains a “magic square”. Also in Melancholia is the polyhedron in the picture, the faces of which appear to consist of two equilateral triangles and six somewhat irregular pentagons. Other works also depict his fascination with geometry, such as the book he published which dealt, among other things, with the construction of various curves, polygons, and other solid bodies. Another piece that described the foundations of geometry was Dürer's final work, his Treatise on Proportion, which was published posthumously and laid the groundwork for descriptive geometry and its rigorous mathematical treatment by Gaspard Monge. Works Cited: Ponich, T. L. "Albrecht Durer Online." Art Cyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. <http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/durer_albrecht.html>. "Dürer, Albrecht (1471–1528)." The Internet Encyclopedia of Science. Web. 8 Dec. 2010.
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