The Prints of Albrecht Dürer: Masterworks from the Collection

Organized to coincide with Renaissance and Reformation: German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach, this selection from the permanent collection includes some of the most celebrated prints by the Northern Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer.

Dürer’s pictorial innovation and technical virtuosity transformed the arts of woodcut and engraving, elevating their status and setting standards rarely matched in the history of printmaking. Printmaking afforded Dürer a greater degree of artistic freedom than painting, and his woodcuts, engravings, and etchings are notable for their intellectual scope, reflecting broad interests in classical antiquity, contemporary theological writing, and humanist thought. 

He expressed the preoccupations of his day by exploring new subjects and reinterpreted traditional ones, be they devotional, secular, or allegorical. The artist keenly observed the natural world, which he rendered in meticulous detail, yet was also able to give physical form to the visionary and the fantastic. The often complex and enigmatic iconography of Dürer’s prints testifies to his remarkable powers of invention.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website