Frist Art Museum Presents “Albrecht Durer: The Age of Reformation and Renaissance”
NASHVILLE, TN – The Frist Art Museum presents “Albrecht Dürer: The Age of Reformation and Renaissance,” an exhibition featuring 100 engravings, etchings and woodcuts by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). Organized by the Cincinnati Art Museum, the exhibition will be on view Nov. 6-Feb. 7, 2021 in the Frist’s Upper-Level Galleries.
Dürer is celebrated as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance and one of the finest printmakers of all time. This exhibition spans nearly his entire career, from his early works as an independent master through the end of his life. It highlights the major themes of his art, such as the “Apocalypse” and the “Passion,” and his interest in nature, linear perspective, and ideal human proportions. Dürer lived in Nuremberg during the advent of the Protestant Reformation. The exhibition explores how the religious turmoil affected both the artist and his art.
He achieved fame primarily with his prints, which were reproduced in multiples and sold widely.
Organized chronologically, the exhibition begins with an overview of Dürer’s training and early travels and then focuses on the opening of his workshop, his major works, and his later travels to Italy and the Netherlands. The exhibition concludes with a study of Dürer’s last decade and legacy.
The exhibition includes prints from five major devotional books by Dürer: the “Apocalypse,” the “Large Passion,” the “Life of the Virgin,” the “Small Passion,” and the “Engraved Passion.” It also features Dürer’s greatest Renaissance nudes, "Nemesis (The Great Fortune)” and “Adam and Eve” and all three Master Engravings: “Knight, Death, and the Devil;” “Melencolia I;” and “St. Jerome in His Study.”
To provide historical context, works by Dürer’s predecessors, contemporaries, and followers are also on view, as well as maps and a timeline.
A video produced by the Frist Art Museum with local artists explains the three most important printmaking techniques used by Dürer: engraving, etching, and woodcut.
A seek-and-find activity encourages visitors of all ages to have fun looking closely at Dürer’s prints to discover a menagerie of animals.
For more information, visit www.fristartmuseum.org.