Renaissance Masterworks by Albrecht Dürer Take Center Stage at Lyman Allyn through November

NEW LONDON–The Lyman Allyn Art Museum has announced the opening of “Albrecht Dürer: Master Prints,” featuring over 40 woodblock prints and engravings from  the German Renaissance master printmaker. 

The exhibit will run through Nov. 30. 

The museum in a press release described Dürer (1471-1528) as an extraordinary innovator who revolutionized printmaking.

The exhibition features a selection of Dürer’s prints, including two woodcuts from his celebrated Apocalypse (1498), his engraved Adam and Eve (1504) and his Meisterstiche (master engraving) of Saint Jerome in His Study (1514). All sixteen prints from Dürer’s Engraved Passion (1507-12) will be on view, along with examples of his Small Woodcut Passion cycle (1508-10), and his Life of the Virgin (1503-10). Several compositions by some of the artist’s most influential contemporaries and predecessors are included, with examples by Albrecht Altdorfer and Martin Schongauer, among others.  

Born in Nuremberg, Dürer apprenticed under his goldsmith father and under the Nuremberg painter and printmaker Michael Wolgemut. He soon rose to prominence, utilizing his skill and ambition to produce increasingly accomplished drawings, paintings, and prints. After several years of travel and work in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy, Dürer returned to Nuremberg to focus on printmaking. Dürer’s woodblock prints and engravings brought printmaking to a new level of sophistication, establishing an international reputation for the artist.  

Lyman Allan Curator Tanya Pohrt said Dürer redefined printmaking in the early 1500s. 

“Visitors will have the unique opportunity to explore the artist’s exceptional mastery of a remarkably complex medium,” she said. 

The exhibit is organized by the Reading Public Museum of Pennsylvania. Additional works from Connecticut College’s Wetmore Print Collection will be featured in the exhibition. Funding comes from an anonymous foundation as well as the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

The museum at 625 Williams Street, New London, is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. For more information call 860-443-2545, ext. 2129 or visit www.lymanallyn.org.