The Linbury Lecture at the National Gallery 2021: Dürer’s Mobility

The Linbury Lecture at the National Gallery 2021 is the third in a new series of annual lectures which bring distinguished personalities from the broad fields of culture, academia and museums to explore themes relating to the National Gallery’s history and its collections.

When Albrecht Dürer embarked on his journey to the Netherlands in July 1520, his fame preceded him. Wherever he went locals celebrated his arrival. Such long-distance fame derived from what Dürer chose to create: works that were masterful, multiple and mobile; sheets of paper imprinted with versatile imagery and bearing the artist’s A.D. mark.

Professor Koerner’s lecture on Dürer’s Mobility was given at the National Gallery on 14 January 2022 and took place in the context of the National Gallery exhibition Dürer’s Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist. Dürer’s travels, Koerner reports, had unexpected relevance during the Covid-19 pandemic which made distance learning a necessity.

Author

Joseph Leo Koerner is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History of Art and Architecture and Senior Fellow at the Society of Fellows, Harvard University.