The Bagpiper

1507–1528 · Virkested

Nuremberg

1512

Emperor Maximilian I becomes his chief patron

From 1512 Emperor Maximilian I was Dürer's chief patron. For him Dürer and his workshop produced the Triumphal Arch, a giant woodcut 295 × 357 cm printed from 192 blocks and modelled on the triumphal arches of ancient Rome.

3 January 1512

Nuremberg's privilege against forgeries

Nuremberg's city council granted Dürer a privilege for the sale of his prints, with penalties for anyone who forged them.

1513–1516

Three years without painting

Complaining that painting did not pay enough to justify the time compared with his prints, Dürer produced no paintings from 1513 to 1516.

1514

Death of his mother

In the year of Melencolia I and St Jerome in His Study, the artist's mother, Barbara Holper, died.

1515

A life pension from the emperor

The perpetually cash-strapped Maximilian could not pay on time and offered to exempt the artist from city taxes, which the Nuremberg Council opposed. At Dürer's request the emperor granted him a life pension of 100 guilders a year from the sums Nuremberg paid into the imperial treasury.