Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T10:36:04.892Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The 2010 Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture: Albrecht Dürer as Collector*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Jeffrey Chipps Smith
Jeffrey Chipps Smith*
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Albrecht Dürer avidly collected for his professional and personal pleasure. Drawing upon textual and artistic evidence, it is possible to assess what sorts of objects he acquired. Through purchases, bartering, and gifts, Dürer amassed an important library with authors ranging from Euclid to Martin Luther. Among his many dealings with contemporary masters, he exchanged drawings with Raphael, swapped prints with Lucas van Leyden, and bought a Salvator Mundi illuminated by Susanna Horenbout. Dürer was fascinated by objects of natural rarity and of exotic, non-European origins. He also self-collected. Some paintings and drawings, occasionally inscribed with biographical or autobiographical information, were intended primarily for his, his family's, and his close friends’ private consumption. The holdings displayed in his Nuremberg house anticipated the art and wonder chambers that became popular later in the sixteenth century. The collection offers new insights into Dürer's conscious efforts of self-fashioning.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , Spring 2011 , pp. 1 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Renaissance Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Please see the online version of this article for color illustrations. I first presented this at the American Academy in Berlin and then as the Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture at The Renaissance Society of America's meeting in Venice on 10 April 2010. I wish to thank John Monfasani, Marty Elsky, and Laura Schwartz in New York; Alexia Rostow, Mirka Fetté, and Peter Hess in Austin; Lisa (Miriam) Kirch in Florence, AL, who read my draft; Magdalena Bushart, Hans Dickel, Stephan Kemperdick, Michael Roth, and Hein-Thomas Schulze Altcappenberg in Berlin. I am especially grateful to Gary Smith and the staff of the American Academy in Berlin, where I held the Anna-Maria Kellen Fellowship in spring 2010, and to the Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, which generously supports my research.

References

Als die Lettern laufen lernten. Medienwandel im 15. Jahrhundert: Inkunabeln aus der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München.Exh. cat., Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,Munich. Wiesbaden,2009.Google Scholar
Andersson, Christiane, and , Talbot, Charles.From a Mighty Fortress: Prints, Drawings, and Books in the Age of Luther, 1483–1546.Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts.Detroit,1983.Google Scholar
Anzelewsky, Fedja.Albrecht Dürer. Das malerische Werk.2 vols. Rev. ed.,Berlin,1991.Google Scholar
Bartrum, Giulia.Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy.Exh. cat., British Museum.Princeton,2002.Google Scholar
Bassani, Ezio.African Art and Artefacts in European Collections 1400–1800. Ed. , McLeod, Malcolm.London,2000.Google Scholar
Bassani, Ezio, and , Gagg, William B.Africa and the Renaissance: Art in Ivory. Ed. , Vogel, Susan.New York,1988.Google Scholar
Beecher, Donald, and , Williams, Grant, eds.Ars Reminiscendi: Mind and Memory in Renaissance Culture.Toronto,2009.Google Scholar
Bezzel, Irmgard.“News from Portugal in 1506 and 1507, as Printed by Johann Weissenburger in Nuremberg.” InThe German Book 1450–1750, ed. , Flood, John L and , Kelly, William A,31–44.London,1995.Google Scholar
Bjurström, Per.Italian Drawings from the Collection of Giorgio Vasari.Stockholm,2001.Google Scholar
Boll, Walter.“Albrecht Altdorfers Nachlass.” Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst,N.F. 13(1938–39):91–102.Google Scholar
Brinkmann, Bodo.“Ein unbekanntes Werk Wolfgang Beurers, des Meisters WB.” Städel-Jahrbuch,N.F. 15 (1995):145–74.Google Scholar
Brinkmann, Bodo. “Susanna Horenbout.” In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online .http://www.oxfordartonline.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T038946pg3 (accessed 26 January 2010).Google Scholar
Buck, Stephanie, and , Messling, Guido.Zeichnen vor Dürer: Die Zeichnungen des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts in der Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen. Ed. , Dickel, Hans.Petersberg,2009.Google Scholar
Bujok, Elke.Neue Welten in europäischen Sammlungen. Africana und Americana in Kunstkammern bis 1670.Berlin,2004.Google Scholar
Bushart, Magdalena.Sehen und Erkennen. Albrecht Altdorfers religiöse Bilder.Munich,2004.Google Scholar
Campbell, Thomas.“Pope Leo X's Consistorial Letto de Paramento and the Boughton House Cartoons.” Burlington Magazine 138.1120 (1996):436–45.Google Scholar
Conway, Martin, ed.The Writings of Albrecht Dürer.New York,1958.Google Scholar
Davis, Natalie Zemon.The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France.Madison,2000.Google Scholar
Diemer, Dorothea, , Diemer, Peter, , Seelig, Lorenz , et al. Die Münchner Kunstkammer.3 vols.Munich,2008.Google Scholar
Eckert, Willihad Paul, and , von Imhoff, Christoph.Willibald Pirckheimer: Dürers Freund im Spiegel seines Lebens, seiner Werke und seiner Umwelt. 2nd rev. ed.,Cologne,1982.Google Scholar
Edelmayer, Friedrich.“Ferdinand I and His Inventories.” InThe Inventories of Charles V and the Imperial Family, ed. , Cremades, Fernando Checa,3:2653–63.Madrid,2010.Google Scholar
Eichberger, Dagmar.“Naturalia and artefacta: Dürer's Nature Drawings and Early Collecting.” InDürer and His Culture, ed. , Eichberger, Dagmar and , Zika, Charles,13–37.Cambridge,1998.Google Scholar
Eichberger, Dagmar.Leben mit Kunst, Wirken durch Kunst: Sammelwesen und Hofkunst unter Margarete von Österreich, Regentin der Niederlande.Turnhout,2002.10.1484/M.BURG-EB.5.105840CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eichberger, Dagmar.“The Culture of Gifts: A Courtly Phenomenon from a Female Perspective.” InWomen of Distinction: Margaret of York, Margaret of Austria, ed. , Eichberger, Dagmar,287–95.Exh. cat., Lamont, Mechelen.Turnhout,2005.Google Scholar
Eisler, Colin.Dürer's Animals.Washington, DC,1991.Google Scholar
Eser, Thomas.“Dürer und das Buch. Facetten einer Beziehung.” InHeilige und Hasen: Bücherschätze der Dürerzeit, ed. , Eser, Thomas and , Grebe, Anja,31–43.Exh. cat., Germanisches Nationalmuseum,Nuremberg. Nuremberg,2008.Google Scholar
Ferrari, Anna Maria. “Vincidor, Tommaso (di Andrea) [il Bologna].” In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online .http://www.oxfordartonline.com.exproxy.lib.utexas.edu.subscriber/article/grove/art/T089739(accessed 26 January 2010).Google Scholar
Filedt Kok, ,Jan Piet, with Bart Cornelis and Anneloes Smits. Lucas van Leyden . Ed. , Luijten, Ger.New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, 1450–1700.Rotterdam,1996.Google Scholar
Foister, Susan.Dürer and the Virgin in the Garden.London,2004.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Gisela, , Heimberg, Bruno , Schawe, Martin.Albrecht Dürer: die Gemälde der Alten Pinakothek.Heidelberg,1998.Google Scholar
Goris, Jan-Albert, and , Marlier, Georges,intro.Albrecht Dürer: Diary of His Journey to the Netherlands 1520–1521. Trans. , Conway, Martin.Greenwich, CT,1971.Google Scholar
Greenblatt, Stephen J.Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World.Oxford,1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossmann, G. Ulrich, and , Sonnenberger, Franz, eds.Das Dürerhaus. Neue Ergebnisse des Forschung.Nuremberg,2007.Google Scholar
Grote, Ludwig. “Die ‘Vorder-Stube’ des Sebald Schreyer — Ein Beitrag zur Rezeption der Renaissance in Nürnberg.” Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseum (1954–59):43–67.Google Scholar
Günther, Hubertus.“Vitruvius in der Renaissance.” InDeutsche Architekturtheorie zwischen Gotik und Renaissance, ed. , Günther, Hubertus,69–78.Darmstadt,1988.Google Scholar
Hamm, Berndt.Lazarus Spengler (1479–1534): der Nürnberger Ratsschreiber im Spannungsfeld von Humanismus und Reformation, Politik und Glaube.Tübingen,2004.Google Scholar
Hampe, Theodor.“Kunstfreunde im alten Nürnberg und ihre Sammlungen.” Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 16 (1904):57–124.Google Scholar
Hess, Peter.“Marvelous Encounters: Albrecht Dürer and Early Sixteenth-Century German Perceptions of Aztec Culture.” Daphnis 33 (2004):161–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchison, Jane Campbell.Albrecht Dürer — A Biography.Princeton,1990.Google Scholar
Impey, Oliver R, and , MacGregor, Arthur G, eds.The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe.Oxford,1985.Google Scholar
Jahn, Johannes,intro.1472–1553 Lucas Cranach d. Ä.: Das gesamte graphische Werke.Munich,1972.Google Scholar
Jante, Peter Rudolf.Willibald Imhoff, Kunstfreund und Sammler.Göttingen,1985.Google Scholar
Johnson, Christine.The German Discovery of the World: Renaissance Encounters with the Strange and Marvelous.Charlottesville,2008.Google Scholar
Kemperdick, Stephan.Martin Schongauer: Eine Monographie.Petersberg,2004.Google Scholar
Koerner, Joseph Leo.The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art.Chicago,1993.Google Scholar
Kohlhaussen, Heinrich.Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst des Mittelalters und der Dürerzeit 1240 bis 1540.Berlin,1968.Google Scholar
Koreny, Fritz.Albrecht Dürer and the Animal and Plant Studies of the Renaissance. Trans., Marwood, Pamela and, Shapiro, Yehuda. Exh. cat.,Sammlung Albertina,Vienna. Boston,1988.Google Scholar
Kotková, Olga, ed.Albrecht Dürer: The Feast of the Rose Garlands, 1506–2006. Exh. cat.,Národni Galerie v Praze, Prague.Prague,2006.Google Scholar
Lampsonius, Dominicus.Pictorum aliquot celebrium Germaniae inferioris effigies.Antwerp,1572.Google Scholar
Leitch, Stephanie. “Burgkmair's Peoples of Africa and India (1508) and the Origins of Ethnography in Print.” Art Bulletin 91 (2009):134–59.10.1080/00043079.2009.10786162CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levenson, Jay A, ed.Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. Exh. cat.,National Gallery of Art.Washington, DC,1991.Google Scholar
Lieb, Norbert.Die Fugger und die Kunst im Zeitalter der Hohen Renaissance.Munich,1958.Google Scholar
Limberger, Michael. “‘No town in the world provides more advantages’: Economies of Agglomeration and the Golden Age of Antwerp.” InUrban Achievement in Early Modern Europe: Golden Ages in Antwerp, Amsterdam, and London, ed., O'Brien, Patrick, et al., 39–62.Cambridge,2001.Google Scholar
Löcher, Kurt, and, Gries, Carola. Die Gemälde des 16. Jahrhunderts .Kataloge des Germanischen Nationalmuseums. Ostfildern-Ruit,1997.Google Scholar
Massing, Jean Michel. “The Quest for the Exotic: Albrecht Dürer in the Netherlands.” In Circa 1492 , ed., Levenson, Jay A, 115–19.Google Scholar
Matile, Michael.Die Druckgraphik Lucas van Leydens und seiner Zeitgenossen: Bestandeskatalog der Graphischen Sammlungen der ETH Zürich.Basel,2000 Google Scholar
Meadow, Mark A. “Hans Jacob Fugger and the Origins of the Wunderkammer.” InMerchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe, ed., Smith, Pamela H and, Findlen, Paula, 182–200.New York,2002.Google Scholar
Mende, Matthias.Dürer-Medaillen.Nuremberg,1983.Google Scholar
Mende, Matthias.Das Dürerhaus in Nürnberg.Nuremberg,1991.Google Scholar
Mende, Matthias. “Sammeln — Ordnen — Beschreiben: Klassifizierungssysteme Dürerscher Druckgraphik vor 1800.” InAlbrecht Dürer. Das druckgraphische Werk, ed., Schoch, Rainer, , Mende, Matthias, and, Scherbaum, Anna, 3:9–27.Munich,2002.Google Scholar
Nesselrath, Arnold. “Raphael's Gift to Dürer.” Master Drawings 31 (1993):376–89.Google Scholar
Panofsky, Erwin.The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer.Intro. Jeffrey Chipps Smith.Princeton,2005.Google Scholar
Parshall, Peter. “Art and the Theater of Knowledge: The Origins of Print Collecting in Northern Europe.” Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin 2 (1994):7–36.Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, Gerhard. “Andreas Karlstadt und Albrecht Dürer.” Jahrbuch für Fränkische Landesforschung 53 (1992):1–18.Google Scholar
Pilz, Kurt. “Willibald Pirckheimers Kunstsammlung und Bibliothek.” InWillibald Pirckheimer 1470/1970, ed., , Willlibald-Pirckheimer, 93–110.Nuremberg,1970.Google Scholar
Prange, Peter.Deutsche Zeichnungen 1450–1800.Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle Kupferstichkabinett 1. 2 vols.Cologne,2007.Google Scholar
Price, David.Albrecht Dürer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation, and the Art of Faith.Ann Arbor,2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reformation in Nürnberg: Umbruch und Bewahrung.Exh. cat.,Germanisches Nationalmuseum,Nuremberg. Nuremberg,1979.Google Scholar
Riepertinger, Rainhard, , et al., eds.Das Rätsel Grünewald.Exh. cat.,Schloss Johannisburg, Aschaffenburg.Stuttgart,2002.Google Scholar
Rockinger, Ludwig.Die Pflege der Geschichte durch die Wittelsbacher.Munich,1880.Google Scholar
Roth, Michael, ed.Dürers Mutter: Schönheit, Alter und Tod im Bild der Renaissance. Exh. cat.,Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett,Berlin. Berlin,2006.Google Scholar
Roth, Michael. “Adaption durch Kopie. Überlegungen zur Funktion von Nachzeichnungen im Werk des Meisters der Gewandstudien.” Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums (2009):97–109.Google Scholar
Rott, Hans.Ott Heinrich und die Kunst.Heidelberg,1905.Google Scholar
Rowlands, John, with, Bartrum, Giulia.Drawings by German Artists and Artists from German-speaking Regions of Europe in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. The Fifteenth Century, and the Sixteenth Century by Artists born before 1530.2 vols.London,1993.Google Scholar
Rupprich, Hans, ed.Dürer. Schriftlicher Nachlass.3 vols.Berlin,1956–69.Google Scholar
Sahm, Heike.Dürers kleinere Texte: Konventionen als Spielraum für Individualität.Tübingen,2002.10.1515/9783110946161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schade, Werner.Die Malerfamilie Cranach.Gütersloh,1983.Google Scholar
Scheurl, Christoph.Vita reverendi patris domini Antonii Kressen.Nuremberg,1515.Google Scholar
Schleif, Corine. “Albrecht Dürer between Agnes Frey and Willibald Pirckheimer.” InThe Essential Dürer, ed., Larry, Silver and, Smith, Jeffrey Chipps, 185–205.Philadelphia,2010.Google Scholar
Schoch, Rainer, ed.100 Meisterzeichnungen aus der Graphischen Sammlung der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.Exh. cat., Germanisches Nationalmuseum,Nuremberg. Nuremberg,2008a.Google Scholar
Schoch, Rainer. “Zur Vorgeschichte der Markgräflichen Zeichnungssammlung.” In100 Meisterzeichnungen aus der Graphischen Sammlung der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, ed., Rainer, Schoch, 19–29.Nuremberg,2008b.Google Scholar
Schoch, Rainer, Matthias Mende, and Anna Scherbaum, eds. Dürer. Das druckgraphische Werk. 3 vols. Munich, 2001–04Google Scholar
Schröder, Klaus Albrecht, and, Luise Sternath, Maria, eds.Albrecht Dürer.Exh. cat., Albertina, Vienna.Ostfildern-Ruit,2003.Google Scholar
Seipel, Wilfried, ed.Meisterwerke der Ambraser Sammlung.Vienna,2008.Google Scholar
Sellink, Manfred. Cornelis Cort, Part III . Ed., Huigen, Leeflang.New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, 1450–1700.Rotterdam,2000.Google Scholar
Shelton, Anthony Alan. “Cabinets of Transgression: Renaissance Collections and the Incorporation of the New World.” InThe Cultures of Collecting, ed., John, Elsner and, Cardinal, Roger, 177–203.Cambridge, MA,1994.Google Scholar
Smith, Jeffrey Chipps. “Medals and the Rise of German Portrait Sculpture.” InDie Renaissance-Medaille in Italien und Deutschland, ed., Georg, Satzinger, 271–99.Münster,2004.Google Scholar
Smith, Jeffrey Chipps. “Dürer's Losses and the Dilemmas of Being.” InEnduring Loss in Early Modern Germany: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives, ed., Lynne, Tatlock, 71–101.Leiden,2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, Walter L.Albrecht Dürer — The Human Figure: The Complete Dresden Sketchbook.New York,1972.Google Scholar
Strauss, Walter L.The Book of Hours of the Emperor Maximilian the First.New York,1974a.Google Scholar
Strauss, Walter L.The Complete Drawings of Albrecht Dürer.6 vols.New York,1974bGoogle Scholar
Strieder, Peter, ed.Albrecht Dürer 1471–1971.Exh. cat., Germanisches Nationalmuseum,Nuremberg. Munich,1971.Google Scholar
Talbot, Charles W, ed.Dürer in America: His Graphic Work.Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art.Washington, DC,1971.Google Scholar
Unverfehrt, Gerd. Das sah ich viel köstliche Dinge: Albrecht Dürers Reise in die Niederlande.Göttingen,2007.Google Scholar
van den Boogert, Bob, ed.Rembrandt's Treasures.Exh. cat., Museum het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam.Zwolle,1999.Google Scholar
van Mander, Karel. The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters from the First Edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603–1604). Ed. and trans. Hessel Miedema. 6 vols. Doornspijk, 1994–99Google Scholar
Vasari, Giorgio.Le opere di Giorgio Vasari. Ed., Gaetano, Milanesi. 9 vols.Florence,1906.Google Scholar
Vergara, Alejandro, ed.Patinir: Essays and Critical Catalogue.Exh. cat., Museo del Prado,Madrid. Madrid,2007.Google Scholar
Veth, Jan, and, Muller, Samuel.Dürers niederländische Reise.2 vols.Berlin,1918.Google Scholar
Vitruvius.Ten Books on Architecture. Trans. Rowland, Ingrid D, comm. Thomas Noble Howe.New York,1999.Google Scholar
Vogel, Susan. “Africa and the Renaissance.” In Bassani and Gagg, Africa and the Renaissance: Art in Ivory , ed., Susan, Vogel, 13–20.New York,1988.Google Scholar
von Sandrart, Joachim. 1675–80.Teutsche Academie der Bau-, Bild-, und Mahlerey-Künste.3 vols.Reprint,Nördlingen,1994.Google Scholar
Winkler, Friedrich. Die Zeichnungen Albrecht Dürers. 4 vols. Berlin, 1936–39Google Scholar
Wirthmann, Bernhard Müller. “Von Fellen, Farben und Vermischtem — Das Nachlassinventar des Mathis Gothart-Nithart.” In Das Rätsel Grünewald, ed. Rainhard Riepertinger et al., 71–84Google Scholar
Wood, Christopher S.Forgery, Replica, Fiction: Temporalities of German Renaissance Art.Chicago,2008.Google Scholar
Zitzlsperger, Philipp.Dürers Pelz und das Recht im Bild: Kleiderkunde als Methode der Kunstgeschichte.Berlin,2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar