Artist 48: Albrecht Durer

Albrecht Durer was born in 1471 in Germany. Part of the Renaissance, he obviously wasn't in the Italian Renaissance but participated in the Northern Renaissance. Really, there was 1 Renaissance period, but each part of Europe, such as Italy, Germany, etc, had their own styles. Durer was very talented even as a 13 year old he did an amazing self portrait. His skill allows him to do incredible details in his engravings, such as this piece, "Melencolia I." There are many interpretations of this piece, however one of them is that it is a representation of melancholy and despair. Most of the objects in the piece have some sort of symbolism towards despair or melancholy, such as an hour glass showing time almost has run out, unused mathematical tools on the floor, everything is a symbol. Durer inspires me to use symbolism, which I plan to do for my my senior thesis, I just need to figure out good symbols that make sense for what I am doing exactly. He inspires me to put more thought into it!!