Module 9: Video Review

Albrecht Durer: Image of a Master Video:

Albrecht Durer was born in 1471 in German. He was a Renaissance artist. He was very talented. He was an apprentice to his father that was a goldsmith. Durer enjoyed painting hands. Durer carefully showed the process of aging in his works. He had a truthful and ruthless eye for the process of aging. When he was 15 he became an apprentice and in 1489 he set forth on his own journey across Europe. He managed to turned himself into a craftsmen.  He was skilled at making woodcuts. A touch of Narcissism was evident in his works. He was summoned back to Germany to be married 4 years after he set forth on his journey. 2 months after he was married he set off to go to Italy. The appeal of landscape came onto him and landscape became present in his works. He was the first true landscape artist in Europe. He grasped the mood of landscape. Durer visited many studios in Venice as he could on both of his trips to Italy. He painted a work for a church. Venicican art had an impact on him. The work he did for the church was natural and had vibrant colors. He learned how to employ the finest strokes of the brush without color manipulating light. He searched for perfect form. In Venice he claimed he was a noble and in Germany he was a nobody, but he was somebody once he returned to Germany. He bought a house that fit his new status. The main source of his income was printings. He had a space set up in his home to do just that. Durer's success in woodcuts was giving the events of the time, Martin Luther and the break from Rome, dramatic feelings and distributing them to the people.

Velazquez Video:

Velazquez was born in 1599. When he was 24 he was named court painter to Phillip the fourth and went to Italy twice. He was awarded nobility by the king. He captured the moment, the light and the air, timeless elements. His paintings look like they were caught in real time, in a shadow. He balances light and color and uses his mind to capture the truth. He doesn't use extravagant color in his works.


I thought that the Velazquez video was not very interesting and certainly not as interesting as the video of Albrecht Durer. Durer, in my opinion, had a more eventful life. Not much information is available on Velazquez, so that made the video pretty dry. I selected these videos because I've never heard of the two artists before and I wanted to choose something different than Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.

The videos relate to the text in that they explain some of the key characteristics of Renaissance art. Durer and Velazquez captured art in the more natural state. Both artists further what was talked about in the text and the videos show and tell how both the artists had an impact on Renaissance art, making it better understood.