Albrecht Dürer

1471 – 1528 · died at about 57^[1][2]

Art

Fun Facts About Albrecht Dürer

• Albrecht Dürer never saw a rhinoceros: his famous 1515 woodcut was based on a written description and sketch, yet German school science textbooks still used it as late as the last century.^[3]
• Dürer's silverpoint self-portrait from 1484, drawn as a child, is one of the earliest surviving children's drawings of any kind.^[3]
• The family name means doormaker: it began as "Türer", a translation of the Hungarian "ajtós", and a door appears on the family coat of arms.^[3]
• According to a story, when a noble refused to steady Dürer's ladder, Emperor Maximilian I held it himself, saying he could make a noble out of a peasant but not an artist like Dürer out of a noble.^[3]
• Dürer helped make the first printed celestial maps in 1515, the same year he and Johannes Stabius created the first world map projected on a solid geometric sphere.^[3]
• Dürer's Four Books on Measurement of 1525 was the first book for adults on mathematics in German, and it was later cited by Galileo and Kepler.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}
• Albrecht Dürer was alive at the same time as Christopher Columbus — their lives overlapped for 35 years (1471–1506).^[1][2][8][9]
• Albrecht Dürer lived to about 57, from 1471 until 1528.^[1][2]

Albrecht Dürer, sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 onward was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I.^[1]

Contemporaries

Niccolò Machiavelli

56 yr overlap

Nicolaus Copernicus

55 yr overlap

Vasco da Gama

53 yr overlap

Michelangelo

53 yr overlap

Leonardo da Vinci

48 yr overlap

Martin Luther

45 yr overlap

Hernán Cortés

43 yr overlap

Ferdinand Magellan

41 yr overlap

Raphael

37 yr overlap

Henry VIII

37 yr overlap

Christopher Columbus

35 yr overlap

Suleiman the Magnificent

34 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Albrecht Dürer

When was Albrecht Dürer born?

Albrecht Dürer was born in 1471 and died in 1528.

How old was Albrecht Dürer at death?

Albrecht Dürer died in 1528 at about 57 years old (1471–1528).

What was Albrecht Dürer known for?

Albrecht Dürer was known for: German Renaissance painter and printmaker. Albrecht Dürer, sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 onward was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I.

Who was alive at the same time as Albrecht Dürer?

Albrecht Dürer's closest contemporary was Niccolò Machiavelli. Their lives overlapped for 56 years.