Discovering Dürer

For the last four years the Fitzwilliam Museum has been restoring all 374 prints by Albrecht Dürer in its collection. It is now presenting a few dozen of the most prized of these in a free exhibition (1 April–3 August). Dürer, who lived and died in Nuremberg but travelled all over the continent, was renowned in Europe around the turn of the 16th century for his woodcut prints in particular, but the Fitzwilliam focuses on his engravings – a towering achievement, given how few of his peers were capable of engraving such large works. The show features more than 50 prints, including woodcut, etching and drypoint works as well as engravings. Highlights include Saint Jerome in his Study (1514), in which the titular figure, bathed in light from a window, concentrates on writing while his lion and his dog sit quietly in the foreground; and Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), an atmospheric, exquisitely detailed work of which Giorgio Vasari once said ‘nothing finer can be achieved’.

Find out more from the Fitzwilliam’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary

Melancholia I (1514), Albrecht Dürer. Photo: © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), Albrecht Dürer. Photo: © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Saint Jerome in his Study (1514), Albrecht Dürer. Photo: © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge