The Artist’s Chronology
1471 Birth of Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg, Germany, on 21 May.
1483-1486 Learns the goldsmith’s craft in his father’s workshop.
1484 Produces his first Self-portrait in silverpoint (Albertina, Vienna).
1486-1489 Studies painting with Michael Wolgemut.
1488-1493 Works in Wolgemut’s workshop and produces numerous woodcuts illustrations for the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493).
1490 Dürer leaves Nuremberg and travels towards the Low Countries and the Rhine region.Over the course of two years visits Nordlingen, Ulm, Colmar, Basel and Strasbourg.
1493 Dürer paints his first self-portrait in oil, the painting known as the Self-Portrait with Sea-holly (Musée du Louvre).
1494 In Venice discovers the work of Giovanni Bellini, Andrea Mantegna and the engravings of Antonio Pollaiuolo. Marries Agnes Frey in Nuremberg. Travels to Venice, passing through the Tyrol, the Alto Adige, Mantua and Padua.
1495 Sets up his own printmaking workshop in his parents’ house on the Burgstrasse.
1498 Paints the Self-portrait aged 26 (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid) and the series of woodcuts entitled the Apocalipsis cum figuris.
1500 Self-portrait in a fur Mantel, aged 28 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).
1501-1502 Produces the engraving of The Great Fortune or Nemesis.
1502 Study of a Hare in watercolour (Albertina, Vienna).
1504 The Adoration of the Magi (Uffizi, Florence), and the Paumgärtner Altarpiece (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).
1505-1507 Second trip to Italy via Padua, Bologna, Pavia and Venice.
1506 The Madonna of the Rose Garlands (Nationalgalerie, Prague).
1507 Adam and Eve (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid)
1508 The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).
1510 Woodcut series of The Large Passion.
1509 Becomes a member of the Municipal Council of Nuremberg.
1511 The Adoration of the Trinity (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).
1512 Dürer first works for the court of Maximilian I.
1514 The engravings of Saint Jerome in his Study and Melencolia I (Alverthorpe Gallery, Jenkintown).
1515 The Emperor Maximilian grants Dürer an annual stipend of 100 Florins for life. Produces his first etchings.
1518-1519. In Augsburg, Dürer paints the portraits of the banker Jacob Fugger, Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg and the Emperor Maximilian I.
1520-21 Trip to the Low Countries.
1522 Having witnessed the turbulent religious climate leading up to Luther’s Reformation, Dürer associates himself with it that year.
1523-1526 Paints the two panels of The Four Apostles (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).
1525 Publishes his treaty Instructions on Measurement with Compass and Ruler in Lines, Planes and Solids.
1527 Falls seriously ill. Publication of The Theory of Fortification of Cities, Castles and Towns.
1528 Dürer dies in his native city aged 57. The Four Books on Human Proportion published posthumously.