Albrecht Dürer (Nuremberg, 1471 – Nuremberg, 1528) The Sea Monster, 1498 – Condé Museum, EST-233 © RMN-Grand Palais Domaine de Chantilly-René-Gabriel Ojéda
ALBRECHT DÜRER PRINT AND RENAISSANCE
Considered a universal genius during his lifetime, Albrecht Dürer continues to fascinate to this day. With his prints, he contributed to shaping the European Renaissance by positioning himself at the heart of artistic exchange. Dürer has been too rarely exhibited in France – the last French exhibition dedicated to his work was more than a quarter of a century ago! An exceptional homage will be paid to this immense artist at Chantilly this coming summer. For the first time, two major collections of Albrecht Dürer’s works in France, that of the Condé Museum in Chantilly and that of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, are joining forces.
More than 200 folios will be brought together in an unprecedented joint exhibition that will highlight Dürer’s dazzling graphic creation, placed at the heart of his own artistic practices and the upheavals of his time.
ALBRECHT DÜRER’S EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE
A native of the prolific artistic centre of Nuremberg, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) is the son of a very vibrant Europe.
His beginnings with Michael Wolgemut, his study trips in the footprints of Martin Schongauer, his meetings with princes, clerics and humanists, his numerous stays in Italy and the Netherlands: each stage of his career is an opportunity to discover and assimilate the production of his peers, to integrate and exceed technical and formal innovations, and above all to influence and leave a lasting mark on his time. The exhibition will examine the making of one of the greatest artists of all time, his training, his early knowledge of Quattrocento Italian prints and the dialogue he established with the great Germanic engravers and draughtsmen of his time, in particular Martin Schongauer.
The famous woodcut series that brought him renown (the Apocalypse, the Life of the Virgin and the Great Passion) will be exhibited in their entirety, and will form the milestones of the exhibition itinerary.
The discovery of Venice, during possibly his first journey there and his well attested second journey, marked a turning point in his art. Drawings and prints bear witness to the flourishing exchanges that took place between Dürer and the Venetian School, during or after his journeys.
Exceptional drawings, sketches for his greatest masterpieces such as the Feast of the Rosary or the Landauer Altarpiece, enable us to understand the maturation and artistic scope of the latter.
Albrecht Dürer nurtured a global, humanist artistic project to understand and emulate nature, in a way that few other artists had done. The study of the human body, of anatomy, of depiction of the living and of space was a constant in his career, as shown by the exhibition. Dürer encountered the greatest artists of his time, such as Mantegna, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, and in return he generated admiration among his peers. Marcantonio Raimondi and Raphael, as well as Flemish artist Lucas de Leyde and the Germanic artists, some of whom worked in his studio, Hans Baldung Grien, Hans Wechtlin, Lucas Cranach and Hans Burgkmair will be convoked to understand how Dürer created a veritable revolution.
In 1520-1521, at the peak of his fame, and to ensure his imperial pension, the Master embarked on a major voyage to the Netherlands, which resulted in a rare sketchbook, the exceptional leaves of which are held by the Condé Museum, in reserve for the last 20 years. The exhibition ends with this voyage, which sums up all the ambitions and obsessions of an artist who definitively placed himself at the centre of the concert of the European giants of the Renaissance.
AT THE HEART OF ALBRECHT DÜRER’S CREATION: THE PRINT REVOLUTION
Dürer was a painter, a draughtsman and an engraver; prints play an absolutely dominant role in his artistic practice. He was one of the first artists to raise print to the same level as the other arts. He mastered all the known techniques of his time: woodcut, line engraving, etching and drypoint. A true genius of engraving, the quality of many of his leaves remains unrivalled to this day. An almost complete panorama of his engraved work will be on view. His main series on wood, which in their time were revolutionary, will be presented in their entirety. His universal masterpieces (Melencolia; Knight, Death and the Devil; Saint Jerome in his cell) will be exhibited alongside more intimate compositions. Above all, the Master’s works will be confronted with the main creations of German, Italian and Flemish contemporary engravers who influenced his art or were inspired by it. The exhibition will highlight the intense rivalry between Dürer and the artists of his time, a phenomenon which contributed substantially to the flourishing of the Renaissance.
With an exceptional range of more than 200 prints and drawings, this exhibition in Chantilly will ultimately enable the central role of the immense artist Albrecht Dürer to be considered in a new light.
Château de Chantilly
The Château de Chantilly is one of the jewels of France’s national heritage. It is also the work of a man with an extraordinary destiny: Henri d’Orléans, Duke of Aumale, son of the last King of France, Louis-Philippe. This prince, who is considered to be the greatest collector of his time, made Chantilly the showcase for his countless masterpieces and precious manuscripts, housed in the Condé Museum. His collection of graphic arts is notable in particular for the number and quality of drawings and prints by Albrecht Dürer, which, as set out in the Duke’s will, cannot leave the Condé Museum. The exhibition will be an opportunity to admire these rarely viewed folios, in dialogue with masterpieces from external collections, especially those of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The exhibition is part of the rich cultural programme dedicated to the Duke of Aumale and his collection, to mark the bicentenary of his birth (1822-2022).
Bibliothèque nationale de France
With the Albrecht Dürer. Print and Renaissance exhibition, the Bibliothèque nationale de France will enable the public to view some of the masterpieces from its collection of Renaissance prints, one of the most substantial in the world. The Prints and photography department holds works by the greatest Germanic, Flemish, Italian and French engravers of the Renaissance. The richness of this collection is in large part due to the history of the Cabinet des Estampes (Prints Room), created when in 1667 Colbert acquired, on behalf of King Louis XIV, one of the most substantial print collections of the period, that of the scholar Michel de Marolles. At that time, approximately 80,000 folios entered the royal collections, among which almost all of Albrecht Dürer’s wood and copper engravings, as well as nine of his drawings.
The Albrecht Dürer. Print and Renaissance exhibition, organised by the Château de Chantilly and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, will present more than 150 prints from the BnF’s Prints and photography department, among which masterpieces of the Renaissance, works by Albrecht Dürer, Martin Schongauer, Andrea Mantegna, Marcantonio Raimondi and many others. Exceptionally, three of the nine drawings by Dürer held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France will also be exhibited.
THE OTHER LENDERS
° Brussels, Ixelles Museum
° Compiègne, Antoine Vivenel Museum
° Paris, Beaux-Arts de Paris, Cabinet de dessins Jean Bonna Paris, Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt collection
° Paris, Louvre Museum
° Rueil-Malmaison, Châteaux de Malmaison and de Bois- Préau National Museum
° Catalogue authors
° Under the direction of Mathieu Deldicque and Caroline Vrand: Laura Aldovini, head of the Musei Civici de Pavie
° Stijn Alsteens, international head, Old Master Drawings department, Christie’s
°Anna Baydova, resident curator, the Getty Paper Project at the Prints and photography department, Bibliothèque nationale de France
° Aude Briau, PhD student in art history, SAPRAT, EPHE, PSL University/French National institute of art history
° Pauline Chougnet, libraries curator, in charge of drawings at the Prints and photography department, Bibliothèque nationale de France
° Marie-Pierre Dion, general libraries curator, head of the library and archives at the Condé Museum
° Nicole Garnier-Pelle, general heritage curator, in charge of the Condé Museum
° Alice Klein, PhD student in art history
° Anne-Sophie Pellé, scientific assistant with SSGK- Staatliches Museum de Schwerin
