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How the painter Albrecht Durer fled the plague – by going monster-hunting
In 1520, the German Renaissance artist s great obsession led him on a formative, and ultimately fatal, odyssey
28 February 2021 • 3:00pm
Dürer - seen here in the second of his three self-portraits, painted in 1498 - travelled through Europe in 1520
Credit: The Print Collector/Getty
1519 had been a bad year for Albrecht Dürer. His patron, Maximilian, the Holy Roman Emperor, had died, leaving him without a steady income. All that surety, gone. Dürer is in bad shape, said his closest friend, Willibald Pirckheimer.
He was the most famous artist north of Italy, but Dürer was worried. His 48-year-old body was beginning to fail him. If I lose my sight and dexterity my affairs will not be good, he said.