Durer

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The seminar explores the immensely original art of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and the incredible range of interpretation it has attracted. Our main focus will be on the works themselves and will include time spent together with prints, drawings, and paintings in the National Gallery of Art. One Dürer’s appeals for modern observers is the breadth of his engagement with many spheres, including religion, politics, local and foreign cultures, gender relations, study of nature, witchcraft, humanism, international travel, art markets, technical innovation, publishing, and radical reformulation of the very idea of the artist as a unique individual in society. We can also ask: what does it mean to study an “old master” in 2023? Questions about mastery are especially vivid with Dürer, who was more self-conscious about the concept than any other pre-modern artist. Can art from this period shed light on any of the urgent questions and concerns of our own time? Should it have to? Both questions can be answered with a tentative yes. But the more interesting question is how. While one or more previous courses in art history provide useful grounding for this course, no specialized knowledge of Dürer or his period is required or assumed. For more information about this and other courses in the Department of Art and Art History, please visit https://art.georgetown.edu This course is not available to audit.