He complained that painting did not make enough money, so from 1511 to 1514 he concentrated on printmaking. The famous works he made in this period were the thirty-seven woodcuts for the "Little Passion", published first in 1511, and a set of fifteen small engravings on the same theme in 1512. In 1513 and 1514 he created his three most famous engravings, "The Knight, Death, and the Devil" (or simply, "The Knight", as he called it, 1513), "Melencolia I", and "St. Jerome in his Study" (both 1514).
'Melencolia I' has a magic square which is believed to be the first seen in European art. The two numbers in the middle of the bottom row give the date of the engraving, 1514.
In 1515, he created his woodcut of the "Rhinoceros". The rhinoceros was in Lisbon, but Durer never saw it. He made it from a sketch and description from another artist. It was not very lifelike, but still being used in some German school science text-books early last century. The rhinoceros was from an extinct Indian species.
Up to 1520 he produced a wide range of works, including portraits in tempera on linen, experiments in etching on plates of iron, and parts of the "Triumphal Arch" and the "Triumphs of Maximilian" which were huge woodcut projects ordered by Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
In the summer of 1520 Dürer made his fourth and last major journey.
He wanted to renew the Imperial pension Maximilian had given him. Maximilian had died in 1519, so the city of Nuremberg stopped paying it. Dürer also needed new patrons following the death of Maximilian, and to avoid an outbreak of sickness in Nuremberg.
He took his wife and her maid and left Nuremberg for the Netherlands in July 1520, to be at the coronation of the new emperor, Charles V. He travelled by the Rhine to Cologne, and then to Antwerp, where he made many drawings in silverpoint, chalk, and charcoal.
Dürer went to Aachen for the coronation, but also made trips to Cologne, Nijmegen, 's-Hertogenbosch, Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, and Zeeland. In Brussels he saw "the things which have been sent to the king from the golden land" — the Aztec treasure that Hernán Cortés had sent home to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V following the fall of Mexico. Dürer wrote that this treasure trove "was much more beautiful to me than miracles. These things are so precious that they have been valued at 100,000 florins". Dürer appears to have been collecting for his own cabinet of curiosities, and he sent back to Nuremberg various animal horns, a piece of coral, some large fish fins, and a wooden weapon from the East Indies.
Dürer took many prints with him. He wrote in his diary to whom he gave, exchanged, or sold them, and for how much. This is some of the few times the price of prints was recorded, so historians think it very important to show the values of prints compared to paintings at that time. Dürer returned home in July 1521. He had an unknown illness which stayed with him for the rest of his life, and slowed his rate of work.
Back in Nuremberg, Dürer started work on a series of religious pictures. There are many practice sketches and "studies" (practice paintings for a bigger painting) but no big paintings from this time. This was partly because of his illness, but more because of the time he spent preparing to write books about geometry and perspective, the proportions of men and horses, and fortification.
His writings show that Dürer was highly sympathetic to Martin Luther, and he may have been influential in the City Council declaring for Luther in 1525. However, he died before religious divisions had hardened into different "Catholic" and "Protestant"churches. Dürer probably thought of himself as a reform-minded Catholic.
Dürer died in Nuremberg at the age of 56. He left money and goods worth 6,874 florins - a considerable sum. His workshop was a part of his large house. His widow lived there until her death in 1537. The house is now a museum.
El Greco
El Greco ("The Greek", 1541 – 7 April 1614) was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. He usually signed his paintings in Greek letters with his full name, Doménicos Theotokópoulos ().
El Greco was born in Crete, which was the center of Post-Byzantine art at that time. He trained and became a master of that kind of art before travelling at 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570, he moved to Rome and opened a workshop and made a series of works. While he was in Italy, El Greco added elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance to his style. In 1577, at the age of 36, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death in 1614. In Toledo, El Greco painted his best-known paintings.
El Greco's dramatic and expressionist style puzzled other painters at the time, but came to be appreciated in the 20th century. El Greco is considered to have influenced both the Expressionist and Cubist styles. His personality and works inspired poets and writers like Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. Many modern scholars think that El Greco belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for long figures and often fantastic or dramatic coloring, combining Byzantine traditions with Western painting traditions. His paintings generally have very bright parts contrasting with very dark parts.
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English peer, nobleman, politician, and poet. He was christened George Gordon Byron, but changed his name later in life. He adopted the surname Noel, so he that could inherit half his mother-in-law's estate.
Lord Byron was the son Captain John Byron and Catherine Gordon.
He was a leading figure in Romanticism. He was regarded as one of the greatest European poets and many people still read his works. Among his best-known works are the narrative poems "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and "Don Juan".
Lord Byron is also famous for the way he lived his life. He was a dandy, living extravagantly, with many love affairs and debts. His fight against the Turks in the Greek War of Independence led to his death from a fever in Messolonghi in Greece. He is buried in the family vault in St. Mary Magdalene Church, Hucknall Torkard, Nottinghamshire, England. A memorial was not raised to him in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey until 1969.
He was bisexual (homosexual acts between males were against the law at the time), and he was believed to have been guilty of incest with his half-sister. Lady Caroline Lamb, who was his lover for a time, said that he was "mad, bad, and dangerous to know."
His daughter, Ada Lovelace, was famous because she collaborated with Charles Babbage on the "analytical engine," a predecessor to modern computers.
Byron (disambiguation)
Byron can mean:
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence (1821–1829), also commonly known as the Greek Revolution, was a successful war by the Greeks who won independence for Greece from the Ottoman Empire. Muhammad Ali Pasha sent his son Ismail with an army and a fleet to help fight the Greeks and the Greek Christian revolutionaries asked for help from European Christians. A fleet of the United Kingdom, France and Russia destroyed the Ottoman-Egypt fleet in the Battle of Navarino. After a long and bloody struggle, independence was finally achieved, and confirmed by the Treaty of Constantinople in July 1832. The Greeks were thus the first of the Ottoman Empire's subject peoples to be accepted as an independent sovereign power.
Ronald Sinclair
Ronald Sinclair (January 21, 1924 - November 22, 1992), born Richard Arthur Hould and sometimes called Ra Hould or Ron Sinclair, was a child actor from New Zealand, who became a movie editor.