Madonna Nursing

1507–1528 · Luogo di lavoro

Nuremberg

1517

Joins Nuremberg's circle of reformers

Dürer joined the circle of Nuremberg reformers led by the Augustinian vicar Johann Staupitz and Wenceslaus Linck. Around 1518 he came to know the writings of Martin Luther, which, he said, had “greatly helped” him.

1519

Death of Emperor Maximilian

Maximilian, Dürer's chief patron, died just as the artist feared he was losing “my sight and freedom of hand” (perhaps from arthritis) and was increasingly drawn to Luther's writings. Shortly before the emperor's death Dürer had made his portrait.

July 1520

Journey to the Netherlands with his wife

To renew his imperial pension and win the patronage of the new emperor, Charles V, Dürer travelled with his wife and her maid down the Rhine via Cologne to Antwerp, where he was warmly received. He attended the coronation at Aachen and saw van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece and Michelangelo's Madonna of Bruges.

4 October 1520

Charles V confirms his pension

The new emperor, Charles V, confirmed Dürer's right to his pension of 100 guilders a year; the main aim of the journey had been achieved.

1520–1521

An illness caught in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands Dürer caught an unknown illness, possibly malaria, whose attacks plagued him for the rest of his life. He drew himself pointing to his spleen, with the note: “Where the yellow spot is, and where I point with my finger, that is where it hurts.”