Albrecht Dürer's Afterlife

Albrecht Dü rer (1471-1528) enjoyed European-wide fame during his lifetime. Dü rer was not only a brilliant painter, but also a pioneering printmaker, experimental draughtsman, book publisher, first German art theoretician and amateur poet. His art was avidly collected, repeatedly copied in diverse media, and often forged. Then, with his death, the posthumous Dü rers were born. This book addresses his afterlife or, more correctly, afterlives. Beginning with the heartfelt eulogies of his friends and the creation of contemporary portraits of the Nuremberg master, Dü rer’ s person, his likenesses, and his art have been celebrated for over five hundred years. Our contemporary Dü rer is the subject of intense scholarly discussions on the one hand and of social and commercial popularization on the other hand.

Jeffrey Chipps Smith is Professor and Kay Fortson Chair in European Art at the Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas. He is the author of numerous books, the most recent of which is Kunstkammer: Early Modern Art and Curiosity Cabinets in the Holy Roman Empire.

Preface; 1 Self-Fashioning and Posthumous Futures; 2 The Dü rer Renaissance; 3 The Authority and Appeal of Dü rer’ s Prints; 4 The Written Story of Albrecht Dü rer; 5 Dü rer and the German Romantics; 6 Celebrating Dü rer; 7 Dü rer’ s Institutional Canonization; 8 The Popularization of Dü rer; 9 Whose Dü rer?; 10 Dü rer Unleashed; Select Bibliography; Photo Captions; Index