MADRID, SPAIN.- This March, the Museo del Prado will be presenting the exhibition “Dürer. Masterpieces from the Albertina”, a unique opportunity to see most of the collection of works by Albrecht Dürer in the Albertina in Vienna, exhibited for the first time in Spain. The Albertina houses the world’s greatest collection of prints and drawings by the artist.

The exhibition is an exceptional event as it represents the first time that the Albertina has lent such a large number of works by the artist abroad: a total of 58 drawings and 27 prints that are normally not on display, only coinciding with temporary exhibitions. They include masterpieces of Dürer’s graphic art, offering the visitor a complete overview of his career, displayed both chronologically and thematically.

Among the works on show are many of the artist’s most famous prints and drawings, such as the Self-portrait at Thirteen, The Hare, Adam and Eve, Melancolia, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, studies for the Saint Jerome in Lisbon, the Antwerp Harbour and the monumental Triumphal Charriot.

The selection of works on view allows for an appreciation of the different areas in which Dürer worked, as well as the outstanding technical mastery evident in his work in a wide variety of techniques. These include silverpoint drawing, pencil, pen, colour watercolour, woodcuts, engravings, and oil painting on panel.

In addition, the exhibition will feature the four paintings in the Prado’s own collection by the artist: Adam and Eve, Self-portrait, and Portrait of an unknown Sitter. Each will play a prominent role within the presentation and argument of the exhibition.

The exhibition is structured around 8 principal sections:

1. The artist’s training and the first Italian Trip. This section focuses on Dürer’s remarkable gifts during his years of study and his assimilation of northern Italian Renaissance models.

2. The Study of Nature. Looks at the artist’s most important natural history drawings as well as the representation of nature in his religious prints.

3. The Representation of the Nude and the Study of Proportion. A key aspect of Dürer’s work, in which he was the first German artist to systematically study the nude in a mythological, religious and anthropometric context.

4. The major Engravings. This section focuses on the great prints, in which Dürer reached a peak of technical and conceptual perfection, using the medium to disseminate Humanist ideals.

5. The Print as a Model of religious Representation. Dürer’s religious woodcuts established iconographic models which would be widely disseminated throughout Europe and America over the centuries to come.

6. Preparatory Drawings for Paintings. Includes drawings made from life of different figures and details which the artist subsequently used as preparatory studies for his finished paintings.

7. In the Service of the Emperor Maximilian I. This section looks at Dürer’s works created to exalt the dynastic virtues of the court of Maximilian I.

8. The Trip to the Low Countries and the late Period. Reveals the way in which Dürer’s work continued to develop and evolve to the very end of his career.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with texts on the history of the collection by Klaus Albrecht Schröder, director of the Albertina; on Dürer and Spain by Pilar Silva, head of the department of Flemish and Northern School Painting at the Museo del Prado; and on Dürer’s life and work by Ernst Rebel, specialist in the artist’s work. It also has texts on each of the works on view in the exhibition and high quality photographic reproductions.