Albrecht DürerGerman, 1471–1528May one see it?
Bratislava, Slovakia
The owner is known. Whether it is on view today, the museum does not say, and we were not trained to guess.
1505
Second journey to Italy
Dürer set off for Italy again — perhaps not only to earn money but also to stop Marcantonio Raimondi from copying his prints. His stay in Venice is known from ten surviving letters to Pirckheimer.
1511
Publishes the Great Passion and the Life of the Virgin
Dürer published two woodcut series as books, the Great Passion and the Life of the Virgin, with a second edition of the Apocalypse and the 37 woodcuts of the Little Passion. His post-Venetian woodcuts developed chiaroscuro modelling.
1512
Emperor Maximilian I becomes his chief patron
From 1512 Emperor Maximilian I was Dürer's chief patron. For him Dürer and his workshop produced the Triumphal Arch, a giant woodcut 295 × 357 cm printed from 192 blocks and modelled on the triumphal arches of ancient Rome.
1519
Death of Emperor Maximilian
Maximilian, Dürer's chief patron, died just as the artist feared he was losing “my sight and freedom of hand” (perhaps from arthritis) and was increasingly drawn to Luther's writings. Shortly before the emperor's death Dürer had made his portrait.
July 1520
Journey to the Netherlands with his wife
To renew his imperial pension and win the patronage of the new emperor, Charles V, Dürer travelled with his wife and her maid down the Rhine via Cologne to Antwerp, where he was warmly received. He attended the coronation at Aachen and saw van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece and Michelangelo's Madonna of Bruges.
1520–1521
An illness caught in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands Dürer caught an unknown illness, possibly malaria, whose attacks plagued him for the rest of his life. He drew himself pointing to his spleen, with the note: “Where the yellow spot is, and where I point with my finger, that is where it hurts.”