The Prodigal Son

c. 1496 · Print

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Not on view at present

Where is “The Prodigal Son” now? Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.

Cleveland, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Not on view at present
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Sep 27, 2026 — now · Verified
Was not on view
Rijksmuseum · Sep 26, 2026 — Sep 27, 2026 · Verified
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The Cleveland Museum of Art · Sep 25, 2026 — Sep 26, 2026 · Verified
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Rijksmuseum · Aug 30, 2026 — Sep 25, 2026 · Verified
Was not on view
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Aug 19, 2026 — Aug 30, 2026 · Verified

c. 1492 – 1494
Basel: woodcuts for the printers
In Basel, a centre of printing, Dürer stayed with Georg Schongauer. A woodblock for the title page of the Letters of St Jerome (1492), signed with his name on the back, led to the works of the “Master of the Bergmann Press” being attributed to him; he may also have worked on the woodcuts for Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools.
July 1494
Marries Agnes Frey
Soon after returning to Nuremberg the 23-year-old Dürer married Agnes Frey, daughter of a prominent brass worker and amateur harpist; the match had been arranged in his absence, and marriage was required to open a workshop of his own. They had no children, and his letters suggest the marriage was not a happy one.
7 July 1494
Married: Agnes Dürer
1494–1495
First journey to Italy
Within three months of the wedding Dürer left alone for Italy, perhaps fleeing an outbreak of plague in Nuremberg. Crossing the Alps he made watercolour landscapes; in Venice he studied its art and judged Giovanni Bellini the best of its painters; Mantegna and Pollaiuolo left their mark on him.
1495
Opens his own workshop
Dürer opened his own workshop in Nuremberg, where over the next ten years he created much of his printmaking. His godfather, the publisher Anton Koberger, helped issue the first series; the city's crafts were governed by the Council rather than guilds, leaving him free to try new techniques and sell his own impressions.