Albrecht Durer: Influence or Prodigy?

There is no doubt in my mind that beyond the guidance of Albrecht Durer’s father and the initial tutelage of Michael Wolgemut, Albrecht Durer was a child prodigy. It is as if he was born to give birth himself to the Northern Renaissance.

At the tender age of thirteen, Albrecht Durer rendered his famous self-portrait in silverpoint by looking at himself in a mirror. This drawing is not only young Durer’s earliest known drawing but attributed to be the first self-portrait in German art!

At thirteen, I was barely able to make it through my Haftorah, and looking in a mirror was almost just as awkward. I was thirtween, caught somewhere between being a boy and a man; and, painting a stick figure was tantamount to using calculus with a paint-by-number scheme.

Yet this child prodigy was also surrounded by influences that would serve to kindle his inspiration and sagacity even more. Albrecht was born the same year that the mathematician, Johannes Muller, developed trigonometry and settled in Nuremberg.

By the time Albrecht was four years old, he found himself surrounded by some of the greatest minds and artisans that inhabited his very neighborhood in Nuremberg. The alter painter and printmaker, Michael Wolgemut lived three doors down from his home; his godfather Anton Koberger had his publishing house in the vicinity; Christoph Von Scheurl, the humanist writer, philosopher and diplomat, and Johanne Neudorrfer, the calligrapher, along with  Hartmann Schedel, the physician, scholar  and cartographer all lived in the neighborhood.

Not a bad way to grow up.

For me, at least, it would be no different than coming home to a Sunday barbecue after playing a sandlot baseball game and seeing Walter Kronkite, Thomas Jefferson, George Putnam and Carl Sagan hanging around the pool sipping on a “Stoli” with my father and discussing the world stage.

So,whether Albrecht Durer was a product of prodigy or influence, I will leave to far greater minds than mine. What I can say for sure can only be reflected in Albrecht’s own words. That “in truth, art is implicit in nature and whoever can extract it has it.”

Albrecht Durer has it!