Erasmus of Rotterdam
Artist
Albrecht Dürer
(German, 1471 - 1528)
Date1526
MediumEngraving
DimensionsPlate: 9 3/4 × 7 1/2 inches (24.77 × 19.05 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number33-472
On View
Not on viewCollections
Exhibition HistoryNorthern Portrait Prints from the Renaissance to the Baroque, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE, August 30-November 30, 1997.
Portraiture, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 19-November 28, 2010.
Erasmus of Rotterdam (ca. 1466?1536) was the most famous Humanist scholar of the Renaissance. Albrecht Dürer, the greatest German artist, was equally well-known, so, as with the Van Dyck portraits of artists hanging nearby, this is a portrait of one celebrity by another. Erasmus is shown writing at his desk surrounded by heavy tomes emphasizing his learning. Note the incisive engraving style, with the drapery folds obsessively articulated. This was typical of German Renaissance art and a hangover from the Gothic style.
With Alden Galleries, Kansas City, MO, by August 10, 1933;
Purchased from Alden Galleries by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.
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